Texan builds artful, green homes out of trash
by Angela Morris – 2 hrs 59 mins ago
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AFP) – Texas home builder Dan Phillips transforms trash into artful treasures, creating intricate floor mosaics with wood scraps, kitchen counters from ivory-colored bones and roofs out of license plates.
The fantastical houses which spring from his imagination are made almost entirely with materials which would otherwise have ended up in a garbage dump.
"People have been doing this for hundreds of thousands of years: using whatever is available to build shelter," Phillips said. "If you ponder what could be used, then building materials are everywhere."
Phillips founded Phoenix Commotion 12 years ago with the aim of creating a new model for sustainable, affordable housing.
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The Storybook House in Huntsville, Texas, was built by Phoenix Commotion using recycled materials. The company builds houses for as little as $10,000 for single parents, low-income families and artists. (AFP/Angela Morris)
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Dan Phillips' houses are truly one-of-a-kind. The buildings, made entirely from recycled materials ranging from scrap lumber and tree branches to bones, are designed based on the material at hand. Advocates say the recycled style is a low-cost, green housing solution, as well as a striking architectural style. (AFPTV)
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Dan Phillips, owner of Phoenix Commotion, used scrap wood that was headed to the landfill to construct this floor mosaic of a phoenix, the mythical bird that rises from the ashes. The mosaic is inside the Bone House in Huntsville, Texas, which also features patio furniture and a stairway made of bones, floors covered in wine corks and beer bottle caps, and a skylight that used to be a Pyrex dish.s (AFP/Angela Morris)
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A staircase inside one of Phoenix Commotion's houses reveals how the home in Huntsville, Texas, got its name: the Bone House. It features details, inside and out, made out of animal bones. The company has diverted hundreds of tons of construction waste from landfills by upcycling the materials into habitable buildings. (AFP/Angela Morris)