4 Cool Houses Made From Recycled Materials

Sure, plastic and glass can be recycled to make bottles, astroturf and sometimes even t-shirts — but it turns out recycled materials are also great for building houses!

All over the world, architects are coming up with inventive ways to give our trash a second life. There are a plethora of ways to incorporate used materials into a home’s design.

Here are some homes made from recycled materials that we love:

1. Aviator’s Villa — Dutchess County, New York

An exploration of “the idea of flight as a powerful motivator for architectural darings,” the Aviator’s Villa by Urban Office Architecture is a stunning home made of salvaged airplane parts built for a retired pilot.

Intended to create a sense of floating “between two water bodies…fully surrounded by air,” the house wraps around and is “exposed” to air in an “orbital fashion.” The combination of recycled airplane parts and minimalist, glass-encased structures alludes to the sensation of flying. This architectural gem is a beautifully unique product of recycled materials.

(Photos from Urban Office Architecture)

2. The Container Guest House — San Antonio, Texas

Created by the national award-winning firm, Poteet Architects, The Container Guest House is the result of a client’s wish to experiment with shipping containers. The architects kept the original color and maintained the essence of the container.

There are a number of eco-friendly features to this guest house, including an electric composting toilet and a mechanism that pumps the water from the shower and sink up to water the roof garden. Also, the deck is made of recycled air conditioner equipment pads, and the container is set on a foundation of recycled telephone poles.

(Photos by Chris Cooper, pulled from Remodelista)

3. Earthship — Taos, New Mexico

Made of at least 50% recycled materials, Earthship Biotecture has built a collection of environmentally-friendly self-sustaining homes that you can buy or rent in Taos, New Mexico. These homes can be found in the world’s largest off-grid, legal subdivision called The Greater World Earthship Community. The Global Model Earthships feature 1.8 KW of solar panels, two solar water collectors, a DC solar powered refrigerator, exterior contained sewage treatment systems and more.

You can visit and buy Earthships through New Mexico Mountain Properties. The eco construction company also has a number of ongoing sustainable development projects in Haiti and Puerto Rico.

(Photos from earthshipglobal.com)

The Governor — Rotterdam, The Netherlands

The bricks in this townhouse designed by Architectuur Maken are made of 15 tons of compacted industrial waste. According to Dezeen, the bricks were made by StoneCycling, a company that creates building materials from waste diverted from landfills.

The architects designed this townhouse as their own home and aim to speed up the transition to a sustainable future by building CO2 neutral and easily adaptable homes.

(Photos from Architectuur Maken)

If these impressive homes are any indication, the future of sustainable housing is innovative and exciting. We’re eager to see how one man’s trash continues to become another man’s home construction material.