Garbage Architecture: Cars, Houses, and Waste Islands

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

As the amount of waste on the planet grows, scenes from everyday life more and more resemble the plot of the post-apocalypse. We produce so much garbage that some craftsmen have already started using it to make cars - just like the characters in Mad Max.

Fantastic blockbuster cars are often a source of inspiration for engineering enthusiasts. For example, for the "legend destroyer" Adam Savage, who in his new project "Wild Experiments of Adam Savage" on the Discovery Channel recreates incredible technique - real and fictional. Not only professionals can design from rubbish - almost any of us can create a real masterpiece.

Optimus Prime from the junkyard

At one time, the "Transformers" franchise made a lot of noise and acquired a huge number of fans. In China, the story of intelligent robots has gained cult status and spawned a kind of separate art form: some fans make copies of characters from recycled metal. One of the most successful projects for creating transformers from garbage belongs to a farmer named Zhilin Yu and his son. It took the family contract about three years to build the first giant model. At the same time, the authors of the figure used exclusively scrap metal and old rubbish from landfills.

Gradually, the models of transformers from the Zhilin family became more and more complex: they "learned" to move and even blow smoke. Their creators, meanwhile, decided to monetize their hobby. Yu and his son began to design custom-made robots, most often for wealthy collectors. As a result, this unusual hobby has turned into an equally unusual business that brings in about $ 160,000 a year.

However, Zhilin Yu's offer is not the only one on the market for garbage transformers. For example, Li Lei from Shanghai also makes, sells and leases copies of the franchise's heroes. In his work, he uses improvised materials, among which are often things from landfills.

Homemade transformers from Chinese fans are not the only example of how you can recreate cinema equipment from scrap materials, even from ordinary rubbish. So, Adam Savage and his team collected monstrous cars from the post-apocalyptic world of "Mad Max", using only the materials available to the heroes of the film, that is, trash from the landfill. But Savage's experiments do not end there: he has yet to build the ZF-1 assault vehicle from the movie "The Fifth Element", recreate a dogfight of WWI fighters with Peter Jackson and repeat many other amazing engineering projects - real and fantastic. The results of his efforts can be seen on the "Wild Experiments of Adam Savage" program every Tuesday at 10 pm on the Discovery Channel.

Recycled Church

A little more than ten years ago, the news spread on the Internet about the unusual architectural idea of a Scottish priest. The Reverend Christopher Rowe decided to build a new building for the Colston Church in Glasgow, using beer cans as the main material. In total, it was planned to collect about four tons of cans, and in addition to them - 500 recycled tires and 300 industrial pallets. The role of the building box was to be played by 12 shipping containers.

The Reverend Christopher hoped that the construction technique he invented would not only help the church avoid unnecessary financial costs and reduce harmful emissions, but also inspire society to lead a greener lifestyle. Whether the Scotsman managed to bring his plan to life is not known for sure. The latest news about his project appeared in 2012: at that time he managed to collect half of the necessary materials, enlist the support of the local population and the government - the Reverend Christopher even received a grant of 42,809 pounds. The construction was supposed to be completed in April 2014, but there were no public statements about the successful completion of the project.

Even if the Reverend Christopher's idea is still under development, there is still a sure chance of seeing the church out of the rubbish. For more than half a century, Justo Gallego has been building a cathedral in the city of Mejorado del Campo near Madrid. The church already looks more than impressive, and it is hard to believe that the Spaniard, who is now 93 years old, collects all the materials at construction dumps or accepts as a gift, and keeps the building plan in his head. The height of the cathedral has exceeded 40 meters, the area is about 8000 square meters. And although don Justo's church still needs some improvements, its doors are always open, and anyone can visit it.

Paradise on bottles

Briton Rishi Sowa gave a chance to plastic bottles found in the ocean and turned them into his personal island. To carry out his venture in 1996, he went to the Cipolite Beach in Mexico. On the Pacific coast, he collected thousands of empty bottles, filled several nets with them and launched the resulting structure into the water. Rishi laid plywood on top of the plastic and built himself a small hut out of wood. Unfortunately, the locals did not like the home-made island: they called the police, and the Briton had to leave his new home.

A year later, Rishi made a second attempt to settle in the middle of the ocean - again in Mexico, but this time in Puerto Aventuras. He reassembled the bottle foundation, covered it with bamboo and plywood, and planted mangrove trees on the island. So Rishi found his green paradise, but not for long again. In 2005, Hurricane Emily destroyed the island, which at that time consisted of 250,000 plastic bottles and reached a size of 20 × 16 meters.

Recovering from the shock, Rishi Sowa set about building a third island, now in the waters of Isla Mujeres near Cancun. To create the island, which the British named Joyksy, it took 100,000 bottles to form a floating cushion 25 meters in diameter. Volunteers from all over the world helped Rishi acquire three beaches, a house with a wave-powered washing machine, solar panels and even its own waterfall.

Some time ago, Rishi had to return to England due to health problems, but now he is ready to move to his island again.

Tiny houses

The Tiny House Movement is particularly popular in the United States, but it also has a large following in other countries. Its essence lies in the name: people build themselves the most compact - and often mobile - homes. They are much lower maintenance costs than standard-sized dwellings and are much more environmentally friendly. First, fewer materials are needed for their construction, which means that natural resources are used more rationally. Secondly, usually tiny houses are made from materials that are safe for humans and the environment. Finally, some followers of the movement create dream homes from what they find in the scrap.

For example, John and Fin Kernogan's tiny house was once a fire engine. The couple took the car apart and found new uses for it. So, manhole covers became containers. The old fire pole was used - now it, covered with copper powder, is used as an element of the interior. Plywood found in a junkyard covers the floor, a chemical laboratory sink sits in the kitchen, a barn door connects the house with the outside world.

Another couple - Katie and Andy from England - took a trailer for transporting cars as the basis for their future home. The couple searched for the rest of the building materials among the piles of rubbish, and very successfully. Plywood was used to create the frame; glass for windows was replaced by polycarbonate; mineral wool provided thermal insulation to the house. In the same landfill, Katie and Andy found a sink, parquet board, waterproof materials, bolts and screws.

The tiny house in Texas known as Breezeway is a perfect example of how appearances can be deceiving. Everything that visitors see from the outside is 100% made of recycled steel panels, but the owners used the most modern technologies to create the interior, along with eco-materials. So, the walls of the kitchen are covered with decommissioned wood, and a garage door leads outside, but the house has an acoustic system and a hidden panel with a TV.

Trash on the roads

Nigerian inventor Keindom Duroya is confident that the vehicle he has created will help in the fight against two problems of Lagos at once: environmental pollution and traffic congestion. His amphibious vehicle was collected from garbage that Keindom found in landfills. The bodywork is made from sheets of wood, foam and metal, and inside is an office chair, an old computer keyboard and a tricycle steering wheel. You can get around in an unusual car both by land and by water. Therefore, if Keindom manages to carry out his plans and expand production, some of the road traffic can be transferred to local rivers.

On the roads, the miracle machine develops a speed of up to 120 km / h, and on water - up to six knots. Keiandom himself believes that his invention needs improvement, because so far the machine cannot fly. In addition, the Nigerian intends to continue the construction of multi-functional vehicles and hopes that other local residents will gradually switch to the new mode of transport.

However, global corporations are also increasingly turning to recycled materials when assembling cars. True, not on such a scale. For example, the Nissan Leaf's seats are made from synthetic material obtained from recycled thermoplastic bottles. The dashboard and soundproofing system of the vehicle are also made from recycled materials. Another car that manufacturers are giving a second life to plastic bottles and industrial debris is the Ford Mustang. Yesterday's waste becomes the fabric that covers the car seats.

In fact, this is only part of the "garbage" projects: there are many more people who find incredible uses for waste. Of course, the imagination of the inventors is admirable, because they actually managed to transfer recycling into the category of art. At the same time, their work makes us think about what mark we will leave on Earth, if whole islands are already being built from the garbage we have left.