We’ve seen our share of strange houses, but a couple of Berkeley architects took a decisively unique approach to a home in their local area, building an 1140 sq. ft. home from as many used car parts as they could get their hands on. We’re talking painted sheet metal siding, windows and skylights & windows from Dodge Minivans, and car roofs. The Berkeley house made from used car parts went after a fish scale look by putting together a blend of parts made from different gray shades picked up from a variety of cars harvested from local junk yards. According to architect Hank Wanaselja:
“I just have always liked cars, I wanted to look at a way of integrating that passion into my work as an architect.”
Berkeley House Made from Used Car Parts
He and his partner used over 100 car roofs, laying them out according to color to make up the second-story “siding”. They also utilized other reclaimed materials such as poplar bark and even salvaged redwood. Poplar bark is an otherwise waste material that is discarded by most wood product manufacturers. Check out the video on the home:
They even experimented with different transparencies on the windows, since the vehicles came with two or three different colors within the model line. In following some of the principles of heliotrope homes (thou without the motion) they used lighter silver on the north side so as to reflect the light and heat away to a further extent from that direction. Before building the homes, they used several small scale models and the process too around 12 years from start of experimentation to the final assembly. On top of all that, they used a 40-foot refrigerated shipping container to serve as their office.
What’s next for the architects? We’re not sure, but they’ve mentioned building houses out of shipping containers and even crushed cars – which would be stacked like oversized bricks. We’re all for innovation and the use of unique building materials, you just need a community or neighborhood where it all makes sense.
