The headlines are in the paper every day: climate change, poverty, homelessness, high levels of unemployment. But these issues can be solved, in a surprising way: by changing how we build our houses. That’s the view of Dan Phillips, a self-taught electrician, carpenter, and plumber, and founder of The Phoenix Commotion, a building initiative based in Phillips’ hometown of Huntsville, TX.
Phillips created the business in 1997, in response to the huge amount of wasted building material he saw sitting in garbage bins. “We have such waste,” Phillips told the Today Show’s Anne Thompson, “there’s just a numbing amount of waste. And we can press that into the service of not only solving the problem of choked landfills, but providing affordable housing and a venue for training workers who don’t have skills”.
In a 2010 talk for the TED Network, the well-spoken and humorous Phillips refers to Nietzsche, Plato, and Sartre in his arguments for why conventional construction creates so much waste. Citing Nietzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy”, Phillips says that conventional building adheres to an Apollonian philosophy, seeking crisp perfection and exact reproduction, a mindset that creates “mountains of waste”. Conversely, Phillips indulges in the more creative Dionysian philosophy, featuring imperfections and “organic process”.
To that end, Phillips designs and builds houses that use 70-80% salvaged material in creative ways: transom windows are rescued from the wrecking ball, wine corks become flooring, circular Pyrex platters become fanciful windows. Phillips makes use of even the most humble and overlooked materials, like Osage orange wood, a common tree in East Texas. Osage orange is usually overlooked by builders, but Phillips uses it to great effect as a free-form porch railing, or in cross-sectioned rounds for a creative countertop. Some houses are built on a theme, like the Budweiser House, inspired by a beer can, or the Bone House, which has the recurring presence of cattle bones from a local butcher. Still others are informed simply on what materials are available at the time of construction. And all the houses incorporate rote elements in refreshing ways: a pendant light usually hung in a foyer is suspended over a shower instead, while discarded toilets are broken apart and repurposed as rippling shower tiles.
It’s not just the buildings themselves that seek to address social issues, though – it’s the building process, too. Phoenix Commotion hires only unskilled, minimum-wage workers who spend a year on the crew, honing their construction know-how and creating a marketable array of skills that improve their job prospects. The company also makes a special point of building homes for single parents, artists and low-income families, providing them with a safe, affordable, and permanent place to live. “I think mobile homes are a blight on the planet,” Phillips told The New York Times in 2009. “Attractive, affordable housing is possible and I’m out to prove it.” The only demand Phillips makes of clients is that they pitch in on the design and building process, thereby instilling a sense of ownership in the future homeowner.
Phoenix Commotion’s creative approach towards salvage, construction, and social engagement has garnered much attention and in 2010, the company was awarded the Gold in the Edison Green Awards from Rutgers University, for their efforts in Affordable Housing. Phoenix Commotion has also been featured on the Today Show and Oprah, and its work has been published in People Magazine, Fine Homes, and The New York Times. For more information, please visit the Phoenix Commotion website.
All images courtesy of www.phoenixcommotion.com
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