11 Examples of Recycled Architecture Done Right

Just because it used to be trash doesn't mean it's not pretty.

Our imagined futures are full of recycled trash: The trailer-park towers of Ernest Cline’s video game action novel Ready Player One, Fallout 3’s retro-salvage chic, the piece of junk that is the Millennium Falcon. For beautiful examples of recycled architecture a little closer to home, just check out these stellar examples of recycled architecture:

1. Nuyaka Creek Wine Cellar

The cellar for this Oklahoma winery is fashioned out of the back of a semi truck.

2. Bosque Vertical

Milan, Italy’s Vertical Forest has over 900 trees in tightly-packed balconies, and recycles greywater water from washing dishes and clothes.

3. Three Trees

In Eagle Rock, California, designer Jeremy Levine built a house from recycled concrete that encapsulates three trees in open air courtyards. Levine Design

4. Junk Castle

The Junk Castle (pictured below in a sketch by creator Vic Moore) was created in 1970 out of $500 worth of garbage, including part of a 1952 Oldsmobile, naturally.

5. Earthship Brighton's pics

So-called earthships, the brainchild of architect Michael Reyonlds, are homes built out of earth and recycled tires with an emphasis on energy efficiency. The upside? Solar power and food-producing greenhouses, according to proponents, mean the cost of living is low. The downside? Locally-sourced materials sometimes mean the hand-crafted roofs leak, and that means mold.

6. Shipping Container Starbucks

It’s a Starbucks, but made out of old shipping containers.

7. Pallet Shed

This tiny house was made of pallets and reclaimed doors for a total of about $400.

8. Bark House

The shingles that cover this North Carolina home are dried bark from old logging yards, and are meant to withstand the force of 30 years and two claw hammers.

9. World’s Tallest Treehouse

Tennessee minster Horace Burgess has been building this divinely-inspired structure since 1993. It scrapes the sky at over 100 feet tall, and is made of scrap wood and nearly a quarter million nails. Stephen Conn

10. Plastic Bottle House

Activists in Nigeria have created a house out of plastic bottles filled with sand. The goal is to create durable, fire-, earthquake- and bullet-proof homes while cleaning up the countryside.

11. Da Wow Shed

The roof came from a mill.