Fire Hoses & Phone Books

As part of World Environmental Day, hosted in June 2005 by the City of San Francisco, INTERSTICE Architects, along with a team of other architects, builders, engineers, city officials, and artists created an 850-square-foot exhibition home in San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza. This dwelling was designed and built entirely out of scrap: reused or recycled materials, while rethinking what a home might look like for the city’s large homeless population.

Turning Ideas Upside-Down

Rethinking a standard single-family home floor plan, the SCRAP:House is an elegant conduit for dwelling solutions constructed entirely with reclaimed materials and pointing directly at City Hall. Everything from the foundation to the front door was reclaimed and reused. Finding appropriate innovative materials was part of the challenge. Like other houses built in the city, SCRAP:House complies with all applicable building codes.

Recyclables on Exhibition

Some salvaged materials were reused for their intended purpose, while some were reincarnated in unusual ways. The exterior of the house is shingled with street signs, back-painted glass shower doors, and scraps of sheet metal. The roof is made of old billboards, while the interior walls are clad in discarded fire hoses, phone books, and computer keyboards. Floors are made from old doors, countertops from junk tile. An impressive chandelier is constructed of old stoplights. Another light fixture is made up of cast-off desk lamps sitting on a hanging platform. Every stick of furniture and every little accessory—chairs, beds, cups, faucets—is pulled straight out of the trash heap in order to bring the public’s attention to exactly how one’s home can be built.

 

 

• Innovations
• Residential