Leger Wanaselja’s McGee House is Made From Over 100 Salvaged Car Roofs
Posted By Charley Cameron On February 8, 2012 @ 6:59 pm In Architecture,Recycled Materials,Sustainable Building | 1 Comment
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Recent data suggests that we send more than 14 million cars to the scrap yard [5] each year, so it’s refreshing to see some of those abandoned automobiles put to good use in sustainable, eco-friendly style. Leger Wanaselja Architecture’s [6] fabulously ambitious McGee House [7] does just that. The curvaceous upper walls of the 2 bedroom home are fashioned from over 100 salvaged car roofs, while the roofs of the home are constructed from sawn apart gray-colored cars. The bright and airy awning you see? It’s made entirely from the side windows of Dodge Caravans, once “America’s best-selling minivan,” now prevalent in scrap heaps.
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The remainder of the home’s construction is equally innovative and eco-friendly. The lower exterior walls are clad with Poplar bark [9], a byproduct of the furniture industry, while all the finish mill-work, from the counters to the deck rails, is crafted from salvaged wood. The wood floors are sealed with a plant resin finish for reduced toxicity. At a modest 1,140 square feet, the home is powered almost entirely by passive solar energy, with a back up system for those occasional dreary days.
The cool, curved walls [10] of the home are functional too; the house appears small and unobtrusive from the street, while the increased wall space allows additional natural light into the home’s open plan rooms.
The California-based duo of green architects, Karl Wanaselja and Cate Leger, has experimented with this medium before. In 2010 they constructed a “surprisingly strong, versatile” temporary shed entirely from salvaged car parts [11]. Their biggest challenge, according to Gizmag [12], was sourcing scrapped cars that were still “in relatively good condition, without dents and with a good paint finish.”
The property also includes a studio constructed from a used shipping container, which if it’s anything like their Shipping Container Home [13] is sure to be awesome.
+ Leger Wanaselja Architecture [14]
Via gizmag [15]
Photos © Leger Wanaselja Architecture [6]
Article printed from Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building: http://inhabitat.com
URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/leger-wanaseljas-mcgee-house-is-made-from-over-100-salvaged-car-roofs/
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[3] Email: mailto:?subject=http://inhabitat.com/leger-wanaseljas-mcgee-house-is-made-from-over-100-salvaged-car-roofs/
[4] Image: http://inhabitat.com/leger-wanaseljas-mcgee-house-is-made-from-over-100-salvaged-car-roofs/wanaselja-house-salvaged-car-parts-1/
[5] scrap yard: http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/out_and_about/687787/recycle_your_car_dont_scrap_it.html
[6] Leger Wanaselja Architecture’s: http://www.lwarc.com/index.html
[7] McGee House: http://www.lwarc.com/res_mcgee.html
[8] Image: http://inhabitat.com/leger-wanaseljas-mcgee-house-is-made-from-over-100-salvaged-car-roofs/wanaselja-house-salvaged-car-parts-4/
[9] Poplar bark: http://inhabitat.com/quaint-poplar-garden-house-is-a-low-impact-sculpture-shed-in-the-netherlands/
[10] curved walls: http://inhabitat.com/caradoc%e2%80%99s-hideout-a-fetching-hut-made-from-recycled-materials-in-wales/
[11] temporary shed entirely from salvaged car parts: http://www.lwarc.com/mu_mgshed.html
[12] Gizmag: http://www.gizmag.com/salvaged-scrap-mcgee-house/21199/pictures#1
[13] Shipping Container Home: http://inhabitat.com/fantastic-california-home-surprisingly-made-from-shipping-containers/
[14] + Leger Wanaselja Architecture: http://www.lwarc.com/
[15] gizmag: http://www.gizmag.com
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