Boeing 747 Recycled Into a Private Residence 239
Ponca City writes "Nicholas Jackson writes in the Atlantic about a woman who requested only curvilinear/feminine shapes for her new home and has purchased an entire Boeing 747-200. They transported it by helicopter to her 55-acre property in the remote hills of Malibu and after deconstructing it, had all 4,500,000 pieces put back together to form a main house and six ancillary structures including a meditation pavilion, an animal barn, and an art studio building. 'The scale of a 747 aircraft is enormous — over 230 feet long, 195 feet wide and 63 feet tall with over 17,000 cubic feet of cargo area alone and represents a tremendous amount of material for a very economical price of less than $50,000,' writes Architect David Hertz. 'In researching airplane wings and superimposing different airplane wing types on the site to scale, the wing of a 747, at over 2,500 sq. ft., became an ideal configuration to maximize the views and provide a self supporting roof with minimal additional structural support needed.' Called the 'Wing House,' as a structure and engineering achievement, the aircraft encloses an enormous amount of space using the least amount of materials in a very resourceful and efficient manner, and the recycling of the 4.5 million parts of this 'big aluminum can' is seen as an extreme example of sustainable reuse and appropriation. Interestingly enough, the architects had to register the roof of the house with the FAA so pilots flying overhead would not mistake it as a downed aircraft."
What about strong winds? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm assuming that the architect will consult with the appropriate engineers before building the structure, but still I wonder how a house with airplane wings for roofs will fair in a major storm?
Re:Another Variation (Score:2, Interesting)
There's also a guy in London trying to do a similar thing with a recycled train carriage [overtheunderground.com].
Re:THey should house a server farm in it (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Radiactive Waste? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:sad... (Score:4, Interesting)
Better yet, buy and existing structure and renovate it, which is far greener than most new construction.
Not impressed (Score:5, Interesting)
A lot of people have built homes from disused airplanes. Nothing new there.
This is "much ado about nothing" from a rich woman interested in some self-serving publicity about how wonderful she is.
A "meditation pavilion"? Really? She recycles a couple wings, which are rather easily to recycle anyway by melting them down, but then throw away most of the airplane instead of using the fuselage as a home. Then, as others have mentioned, she cuts the top off a mountain for her feminine palace-thing.
And the "use all parts of the Buffalo" quote is more self-serving crap. First of all, it's a Bison, not a Buffalo. Second, they only "used all parts" because they were bloody hard to obtain. You try killing a giant, angry bull with a rock and a stick and see how hard it is.
When times were good, and they had lots of bison, they just cut off the best parts and left the rest to rot--this can be documented from the multiple "buffalo jump" sites where they chased Bison off cliffs. You take all the parts from a couple because you need them, but when it gets down to the end, you just cut off the humps and tongues. The "perfectly ecological Native American" is a myth invented by Europeans. The Native Americans are the same as humans all over the globe. What a shock.
Re:sad... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Another Variation (Score:4, Interesting)
A guy here in Oregon had the same idea, but without the architectural finesse: http://www.airplanehome.com/ [airplanehome.com]
Indeed, there's already a company selling airplanes as homes commercially, http://www.airplanehomes.com/ [airplanehomes.com]. The airplanes are mounted on a swivel, so they can face into the wind.
Re:Another Variation (Score:4, Interesting)
Good stuff! They seem to be doing a lot of this in Europe too... There's an entire hostel built into a retired 747 in Sweden:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/02/11/reclaimed-jumbo-jet-hotel-in-stockholm/ [inhabitat.com]
Older article with links to other related projects:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09/creative-recycling-jumbo-hostel.php [treehugger.com]
The land it's parked upon.... (Score:1, Interesting)
...probably emits more radiation than the airframe has ever accumulated during its years of flying.
Know anybody who has granite rocks in their landscaping, or granite countertops in their kitchen or bathrooms? Take a handheld geiger counter the next time you visit them and entertain them with the small amounts of radiation emitted by their granite :-)
One drawback comes to mind. (Score:3, Interesting)
The biggest drawback I can see to having a home built out of aircraft aluminum is the corrosion issue. Contrary to what many people think aluminum does corrode. It is not as active a metal as steel, but it DOES corrode.
If you take aluminum and fasten it to other structures with dissimilar metals you are liable to have a major corrosion problem on your hands. I'm thinking Malibu would have a more electrolytic atmosphere (being near the ocean) and so the problem would be compounded. Perhaps some sort of anodic protection could be put in place during construction.
Anyway, I'm just wondering if anyone is thinking about the potential corrosion problem.
Re:sad... (Score:3, Interesting)
i don't know how much aluminum is in a 727, but i would guess a lot, i do know it is a very energy intensive process to mine and refine aluminum, more so than many other materials. might it be 'greener' to recycle the aluminum and use brand new materials for the house? greenwash from many angles...