Time to take recycling to new heights
LONDON – We all love recycling. Those empty wine bottles that are going to be reincarnated as full ones. The old Christmas cards that will be pulped then come back as newspapers. They make us feel as if we are doing our bit for the planet.
So a property made from recycled materials, whether wholly or partly, already has an inbuilt feel-good factor. Recycling could also mean a huge financial saving. With property prices rocketing, there is naturally a premium on low-cost house-building solutions.
For those who have caught the recycling bug, there is no limit to how far the enterprising homeowner can go. Consider the strange, inspirational story of Bruce Campbell in Portland, Oregon.
A retired electrical engineer, Campbell, 64, made himself a woodland home out of a Boeing 727 that would otherwise have ended up as scrap metal. He paid $220 000 (R2.3-million) for the plane, then converted it into a habitable residence by installing a shower, futon, microwave and other necessities.
“My goal in life is to change humanity’s behaviour in this little area,” says Campbell. He plans to build an even bigger and better airplane home in Japan, where he spends half the year, using a 747 rather than a 727; the ultimate upgrade.
The Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association estimates that between 500 and 600 aircraft are retired annually. Campbell is not alone in having identified some of these decommissioned aircraft as potential homes. There are several dotted around the world, from Costa Rica to the Netherlands.
At La Cholla Airpark in Arizona, where 91 homes are arranged around a private airstrip, there is no doubt which is the star property. Retired engineer Toshikazu Tsukii, 76, has built a two-bedroom guesthouse made almost entirely out of aircraft parts: the nose cone of a 737, the fuselages of two 707s and the tail end of a 727. Tsukii, a lifelong aircraft enthusiast, was prompted to act when he saw the 737 nose cone in a scrap metal yard, about to be broken up.
Houses made from recycled airplanes would have to be called a niche market. Similarly, the British love affair with trains has led to some fascinating projects, with an imaginative use of old railway carriages.
“We have several on our books, and they are always popular as holiday lets,” says Saskia Welman of holidaylettings.co.uk. “In fact, we have seen inquiries for that sort of property double in the past year. People love the idea of a vacation in a property that has a slightly alternative feel.”
Rose-Marie Finlay of Bridport, Dorset is the proud owner of a converted rail- way carriage, that is let as a holiday home. The property is near the beach and consists of a 1905 Great Western Railway (GWR) carriage with a bedroom and bathroom attached.
Old shipping containers have also provided a rich seam for people interested in building a home from recycled materials. They are versatile, and like Lego blocks, can be arranged in many different ways.
A good example is the spectacular Manifesto House in Chile, which cost $118 000 (R1.3-million) to build in 2009.
It is the brainchild of architects James & Mau, pioneers in the field of sustainable building. The 160m² property is constructed of three old shipping containers, with wood-slatted exteriors. Some 85% of the materials used in the property are recycled.
At Container City at Trinity Buoy Wharf, in the East End of London, there is a small community of 70-odd people living in converted shipping containers. These are multicoloured and stacked four storeys high. It takes less than £50 000 (R882 888) to convert one into a habitable apartment, renting for between £600 and £1 000 per month, which is very cheap for central London.
But it is important to approach recycling in a hard-headed, practical way, not just to go with the eco-friendly flow.
One staunch believer in using recycled materials wherever possible, is architect Piers Taylor. He presented the BBC Two television series The House that
£100k Built and is the spokesman for the London Homebuilding & Renovating and Home Improvement Show.
“Recycling can sometimes be something of a gimmick, and one of my pet hates is recycled ‘features’ that don’t really blend with the rest of a property.
“It is important that the architecture of the whole transcends any recycled elements in the construction. I came across my favourite building made of recycled materials in a small town in Alabama. They had constructed an entire wall of recycled car windscreens. It looked brilliant.”
Unless you have an accommodating local planning authority, you are not going to be able to build an airplane home in the woods, or erect a shipping container on the edge of town.
But if you use your imagination, you should be able to have some fun, save yourself a few rands and recycle on a scale that will make your efforts the envy of your eco-conscious friends. – The Telegraph