Texas Company Builds Whimsical Homes Made From Trash

By THC Staff | August 11, 2016

 

Dan Phillips, the architect behind Texas-based company Phoenix Commotion, is building homes made from trash. But one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and these unique homes are indeed treasured.

Phillips has adopted a system for building just as innovative as the homes themselves. His mission is to construct homes from salvaged materials and reuse them in the building industry. The building cost for each home is between $30 and $50 per square foot. That’s incredibly affordable, especially for the area.

How does he build so cheap? Aside from the recycled materials, he also only uses unskilled laborers. He takes people with no training, pays them minimum wage, teaches them and then sends them off to higher paying jobs. So, not only is he using cost-effective apprentice labor, he’s giving people a working skill.

Among some of the wacky, whimsical houses Phillips has built in the Huntsville, Texas area, are a cowboy boot-shaped home, a bone house and a house made of wine corks.

Phillips only builds for three groups of people — single parents, low-income families and artists. As he states in the video, he takes great pride in being able to provide people with a home who would otherwise never be able to own one.

His number one incentive, though, is to keep trash out of landfills. 90 percent of consumer goods end up in landfills within 6 months of being purchased, according to Phillips. He’s hoping his building initiative can change that.

If you’re hoping to have a home built by Phoenix Commotion, you’ll have to not only fit the criteria but also live in Huntsville, Texas. Phillips says he wants to work on cleaning up his own backyard first.