Apparently Dan Phillips has been doing this for a while, but I just recently heard about it. He and his wife run a project called Phoenix Commotion, outside of Houston, Texas, that builds homes for low-income families almost entirely out of recycled materials. This project was recognized as the "most innovative housing worldwide" in 2003 by the International Institute of Social Inventions. Its not like you sign up and they build you a house though, instead they set people up with a skilled builder and actually train the new residents in home-building skills. They call it a "homesteading initiative" with the intent to give people homes and skills that they otherwise would not be able to acquire. This seems to impact social problems on so many levels that it is amazing its not being repeated elsewhere (maybe it is, but I have yet to find it). They work with large plots of land that they can break into smaller segments and can create single family homes for about twenty to fifty thousand dollars. In this way they are creating new sustainable neighborhoods that will carry the positive intentions through their lifespan. I would like to see this take the place of suburban expansion, which it just may as the greater American consciousness begins to realize we can no longer live out that lie. Its an added benefit that these homes all look unique and completely rad - these are the types of places you used to draw as a kid, the dream home with cool windows, weird doors and spiral stairs. Imagine if instead of a large tract of cookie-cutter boxes we saw our neighborhoods develop as personal expressions of the people living there. Throw in a small town center with a community building, co-op and a local farm and we are talking about awesome, unique villages that provide a positive space for sustainable life. This guy is already doing it, laying the blueprint for the generation to come.
Learn more at PhoenixCommotion.com
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