Unusual
Materials: Train Cars
For years now, architects and designers
have been making use of many unusual materials to build homes. A lot of the
materials probably seeming unrealistic as well it should be. But, these architects
and designers are setting new bars as to what can be used when thinking of new
designs for residential and commercial buildings. From objects being used to go
green to over the top ideas, just to add new dimensions to a normally cookie
cut idea of design.
There are many interesting unusual
materials being used such as plastic containers, wine/beer bottles, 18 wheeler
pods, and other such materials. If you haven’t already noticed most of these genius
and unconventional ideas are considered green construction. These are recycled
items used specifically to build a house in a original manner, not harming the environment.
One unusual material I find very
creative and quite interesting is the use of a train car. Pieces are not used
to create a certain design but to use as a whole. They are “big, heavy, and cumber
stone.” Because of this fact they can be
very durable. They are known to be hard to move from their location on the
track, and have a shape inconsistent to a normal inhabitant space. However, the
popularity of green construction and recycling has sprung a temptation for
using train cars for many other purposes other than its native home on the
tracks. These train cars are being recycled into homes, offices, hotels,
churches, and anything else you could possibly think of.
Although it is costly to purchase and
find transportation to transfer train cars, it is much less than building or
buying a used house on the market. If anything else, the mortgage industry
seems to be in trouble making any type of green construction most sensible to plan
and develop. Because of the money being saved you are able to continue going
green throughout the car, and even build up and around the cart to make it look
more traditional, still having unconventional materials.
The train car is not something only being
taken advantage of here in the United States, but is existent throughout the world.
It’s use seems to vary across the globe, but no matter the use, it is still
going green. It’s green, yet still very
unconventional and a very different outlook of what people normally perceive a
home, office, church, restaurant, etc. to look like. I find it very interesting
and somehow a form of art in some of its uses which make it a very diverse
material and seems to be quite sustainable considering its original construction
for its intended purposes.
