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(#3) Don Justo's Cathedral
Justo Gallego Martinez's cathedral is outrageously amazing to behold. Don Justo, as he is known, is an ex-Trappist monk and farmer and, since 1963, he's been slowly but steadily building a cathedral near Madrid that's modeled on St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. The whole thing is made of discarded materials, and reaches a good 40 meters into the sky.
Don Justo started his project with zero construction experience, and he's still going strong in 2016. If you've got 20 minutes, Future Shorts has a great YouTube bit called The Madman and the Cathedral that delves into Don Justo's background and his longtime labor of faith.
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(#6) Palace of Depression
George Daynor's Palace of Depression, finished on Christmas Day 1932, grew up in a combination junkyard/swamp property Daynor bought in Vineland, NJ, for a whopping $4. The palace's name does not refer to deep despair; rather, it was a statement about overcoming the Great Depression. Daynor lost everything in the stock market crash of 1929 and wandered his way to New Jersey seeking a new fortune. After buying his new property without even seeing it, he discovered its poor condition, but was undeterred – especially after an angel told him in a dream to build a palace.
So that's what he did. The Palace of Depression became a major tourist attraction and supported Daynor until late in life. The original palace fell victim to vandalism and was bulldozed in the late '60s, but a local nonprofit has been slowly rebuilding it piece by piece.
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(#4) The Brighton Waste House
The Brighton Waste House is a research project you could live inside if it wasn't for all those pesky graduate students and workshopgoers. Built with waste materials salvaged from construction projects, this low-energy structure was completed in April 2014, and it's living proof that waste material can go a long way.
It's also proof that young people can play a big role in building innovative, contemporary housing – students at City College Brighton and Hove in England helped make this thing happen. Just a few of the items that went into its construction include vinyl banners, razors, jeans, chalk waste, and 20,000 toothbrushes.
For inspiration, the Brighton Waste House looked to The House That Kevin Built, a sustainable home that went up in London in 2008 over six days – on live TV.
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(#7) Save the Beach Hotel
Corona's Save the Beach Hotel was a bold statement piece intended to draw attention to the gross volume of trash that gets tossed on European beaches every year. And that trash is exactly what the hotel was made of – beer cans, toys, mannequin legs, even a garden gnome for good measure. Yep, this right here was the world's first garbage hotel, courtesy of the creative brains at J. Walter Thompson Madrid.
HA Schult, the German artist famous for working with trash (see his Trash People for reference), was the mastermind behind the project's execution. Although the hotel wasn't really open to the public, people did stay in it – Danish supermodel Helena Christensen, for instance. It was more an art piece/public awareness campaign than a permanent structure, but still plenty awesome.
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(#2) Cano's Castle
God is the one who made this, while I was under the influence. God used my hands while I was trippin'.
Those words of inspiration come straight from the mouth of Vietnam War vet Dominic "Cano" Espinosa in this short vid from Flickerista Productions, and when you see the… thing he built in Antonito, CO, you just know he did it stoned out of his mind. Two prominent towers rise above an encampment decked out with years's worth of trash hauled in from the local dump – 100-year-old planks, scrap metal, rocks, hubcaps, sliced-up beer cans galore, and a whole lot more. It all coalesces into something that can only be described as crazy.
Cano himself is just as bizarre as his creation. He says Jesus has been living in the castle since 1987, and that the world will soon end, when meteorites pound 2/3 of humanity into meat patties. He also says we never made it to the moon, and now we're trying to get to the "other one"; he's got some oddball ideas about diet and women, too.
But Cano's got heart, that's for sure. His dedication to this building is both inspiring and perplexing. If you stop by to snap some photos, he'll probably show up to offer a few nuggets of castle history – along with his trippin' vision of Jesus and judgment day.
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(#9) Rotterdam House with WasteBasedBricks
StoneCycling is a Dutch company that invented WasteBasedBricks, which are bricks made of leftovers from the ceramics, insulation, and glass industries, as well as unwanted clay and demolition waste. The end results are beautiful building blocks that successfully repurpose material that would have otherwise been trashed. The bricks are of superb craftsmanship, too – a mason who worked on the Rotterdam home of Nina Aalbers and Ferry in 't Veld was impressed by their exceptional durability.
That home, by the way, is the first one in the Netherlands made with recycled bricks like this. You can see its construction progress here and read more about its background here.
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About This Tool
You would not believe that these strange buildings were made from recycled materials and other things were thrown into the trash can. Under the influence of global diversification and sustainable development, garbage recycling and renewable materials have received more extensive attention and use. With overpopulation and consumption growth, we need to find more environmentally friendly ways to develop. Using recycled materials for construction can be a good way to save money and protect the environment.
In some cases, compared with new materials, recycled materials can make architectures stronger, more efficient, and less expensive. You will find a collection of 11 crazy buildings made from trash and recycled materials here, the random tool would simply introduce them.
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