Unusual Materials

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.