Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

uilDing witH wHat you Have 97
Junk and Recycling
All over the world we are knocking down old buildings as fast as possible,
and often many usable components are shoveled into landfills. Planking,
beams, windows, doors, plumbing fixtures and furniture can all be salvaged
and reused. This is not appropriate for the mass- produced modern industrial
house, but rather to the individual, tailor-made, hand-built house. This
is ideal for an Ecovillage, where we can create our own cottage industry,
collecting materials, storing them and using them. The ecological saving is
significant and reduces the embodied energy costs of a building.
‘Earthships’ is a concept developed by Mike Reynolds in New Mexico
during the 60s and 70s. Old car tyres are stacked up and filled with earth,
creating massive thermal walls. Tin cans are cemented together with mud
to make insulated interior walls. The idea of using junk not only makes our
building cheaper, it also fills a need in getting rid of and making use of an
energy-embodied resource.
Plastics
Most plastics are made from oil, and once made can be recycled almost
indefinitely. This makes it a useful and flexible material. The biggest
drawback is that many plastics contain gases that leak out slowly. Another
drawback is that plastics give off poisonous gases when burnt, and are heavy
industrial products. Given that we can minimise these two problems, plastics
have a place in our list of building materials.
When building with
what you have, a
structure is never
entirely complete.
As new materials
are gathered, new
opportunities arise
for extension or
embellishment.