An Eco-Friendly House Designed with Recycled Building Materials

March 17, 2025
By: Priyanshi Shah
INFLUENCERS

Housescape Design Lab is located outside the capital city of Thailand, in the northern part of the country, which has a distinct cultural difference from the capital. Designing with recycled building materials, Rebirth Materials House describes harmony with the culture and way of life of the ecosystem we live in. The architecture of this eco-friendly design shows an understanding of the relationships between humans, tools, and recycled building materials used to create these spaces. Its focus is not on creating architectural forms that stand out but on valuing the interactions within the ecosystem.

Context - Blending with the Landscape

Rebirth Materials House, blending with the landscape, was an extension of the main residence on the same site as a key consideration of the sustainable design. The first challenge was to create a warm and welcoming entrance which faced the harsh afternoon sun and was visually approachable, leading to the use of glass recycling as a barrier and a connection to diffuse and reflect light.

Material Expression - From Waste to Wonder

The glass was being dismantled and prepared for disposal to be recycled, but they wanted to prevent this material from being destroyed. As creating new glass consumes more resources, the team decided to maintain the material and transform it into a new form that could enhance the recycled building materials philosophy. The team started experimenting with daily used materials with diverse techniques and strategies to reassemble it into a new product.

Recycled Building Materials

Calculating the weight of the glass and designing the arrangement of these materials to withstand the local wind pressure. Gaps are important for wind to pass, and leftover glass sheets, though in different sizes, were used, which blended perfectly with the surroundings of Thailand. Next, an innovative approach was to experiment with plastic waste from bottle caps. They purchased these plastic scraps from a factory in Chiang Mai to test how the plastic mass would interact with light.

Tempered glass was recycled, while plastic scraps and broken wine bottles were strategically placed between the gaps. With thoughtful decision, the walls are composed of glass, plastic scraps and steel structure, transforming the conventional use of materials. Following the design approach of a 10km radius, with local labour and materials, the house was created. The materials were dismantled from the old house and reused, seamlessly merged with the surroundings. The dismantled door and windows of the old house and wooden stair balusters were designed with plywood wall, integrating the notion of building with few resources.

Environmentally Friendly Home

Walking through this eco-friendly, sustainable house, one can feel a sense of belonging as the structure of recycled building materials merges with surroundings and nature and uses Zero-Waste Building Techniques. Terraces at various levels connect people, and it blurs the boundary between inside and outside. This environmentally friendly home design seamlessly creates a boundary between the structure and nature as a thin and blurred experience of the house from inside to outside and vice versa.

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