recycled home: eco materials: tomas small

Tomas Small and his wife, Joanna Brody, should be one of the greenest couples on this planet. The couple resides in a prefab that is made using everything from recycled steel bars to crushed sunflower husks and shredded blue jeans.Mr. Small wanted one of the greenest houses ever designed by Sander Architects, and the only problem he was facing is the lack of funds. The architects were up to the task but only found themselves using materials that they would have never imagined could be used in house building. Besides using recycled steel and Styrofoam, they also made use of sunflower husks for wall panels and old jeans for insulation.
The house also boasts cross-ventilation for cooling and passive solar energy for heating. Gardening in this house is done using grey water. Three sides of this amazingly green house are made from folded steel panels, and the fourth side is assembled using concrete, acrylic and glass. Additional strength to the upper floors with wire mesh and rebar wrapped around Styrofoam and sprayed with concrete. For insulation of the entire house, the ceiling and walls were all lined with two layers of shredded blue jeans. The 16 feet high, screw-on panels and the bookshelves of this house were made from crushed sunflower husks. With all this onboard, the cost of the house was $528,000, that’s only a third of the actual cost for an architect-designed house of this monster size in the Los Angeles area.