Super Eco

Photo credit: jmjvicente, SXC

There's something really satisfying in the idea of reusing old junked cars to make new, affordable (and green!) housing. Is this not extreme repurposing, or what? But it's what Rob Boydstun, president of Boydstun Metal Works and now head of Miranda Homes is doing—and it's changing the way we build homes, to boot.

The skeleton of the average American home is made of wood. These are metal, constructed of pre-engineered metal studs fabricated from four to six cars per house in his metal plant and then encased in a tight structural envelope encased in rigid foam. The metal studs are enveloped with blown-in insulation, and ductwork is installed in insulated crawl spaces between floors that create a more efficient heating and cooling system.

These old-car Energy Star homes take 5 workers 45 days to build, contrasted with the average home's 15-plus workers and six to nine months to finish. The result? A cost of only $95 per square foot (less than $200,000 excluding land) to build compared to the typical stick-built construction cost of between $80 and $200 per square foot. And although Boydstun's initial 2,570 square foot, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath model home looks and feels very typical, it's not. Five models are currently available and there are plans to create a 1200 square foot home with an even greener footprint. The possibilities are endless, although the hardest part of building these homes is getting the CAD software set up by his team of engineers, way before anyone actually builds a thing.

We'd like it even more if the technique could be used to create eco communities of interdependent, interconnected homes and public spaces, but we'll take one thing in this big green dream at a time...