Many projects which push the bounds of traditional thinking and ways of doing things are often not about the acceptance of the actual project as a whole, but the development of new technologies used in the overall project. That is precisely the point with a recent venture in which a team of UK engineers will build a house entirely from waste, using materials such as old toothbrushes, cut-up jeans, video cassettes, and mattress filling.
The idea is very similar to a prototype building that Kevin McCloud, the presenter of Channel 4 series Grand Designs, created during a 2010 exhibition in London, and has actually been named “The House that Kevin Built.”
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This £300,000 project will be larger and created as a much more permanent structure. It has been in the pipeline for around four year, and construction finally began in November 2012 on a site donated by the University of Brighton.
Jon Lee, from the Ecology Building Society, recognises the originality of the idea and the potential for the discovery of new, cheap, recycled materials that can be used in the construction industry. “It’s a leap forward in highlighting the effectiveness of such materials.”
The building will have a wooden frame created from leftovers and cut offs from other construction sites. Other waste materials such as cassettes, plastic bottles, ripped jeans, etc. will be used to fill the cavity between the internal and external walls.
By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com
Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com