8 Can Houses

As with bottle houses, there are also a few houses made out of cans. Tin can wall construction is not as popular as bottle wall construction. This may be due both to fact that the cans, by themselves, do not provide the cumulative tensile strength necessary for load-bearing walls. (Or perhaps bottles just win out over cans, on account of the stained glass window effect.)

Sometimes the cans are added to the houses later, either as a recycled kind of DIY aluminum siding or as decorative details.

(8 examples follow after the fold…)

1. Beer Can House

John Milkovisch, a retired upholsterer for the Southern Pacific Railroad, started his project now known as the Beer Can House in 1968.

2. Michael Reynolds’ Earthships

New Mexico-based architect, Michael Reynolds (with Fanta & Coke cans on upper right) has been building houses using recycled material (including cans) since 1972. Granted a patent in 1973 for a “building block of empty cans.” He and his work are the subject of the documentary film, Garbage Warrior.

3. African Coke Can House

This photo of a house built with soda cans in Botswana is from Doug Witham’s Flickr Photostream. There are other African houses built from soda cans in Lesotho.

4. Lightning Ridge Can House

This is a picture of a can house in Lightning Ridge, Australia from Digital*Ephemera’s Flickr Photostream. I don’t know anything about this house, but judging from the photo it appears to have fallen into disrepair. (Keep out signs, windowless window opening, lighting on the interior wall suggests missing roof?)

5. Richard Van Os Keuls’ Can House

Photo on upper left from Scaramouche!’s Flickr Photostream; upper right & lower photo by Debra Jane Seltzer

Richard Van Os Keuls’ house in Silver Spring, Maryland uses crushed aluminum cans as shingles.

6. Tonga Islands Can House

This photo of a house on the island of Ha’apai is from Daniel Andrew Clem’s Flickr Photostream.

7. Can House Interior

I don’t know much about this shot from Kino Pablo’s Flickr Photostream. More like interior decorating with cans, I suppose, but pretty hard core. (Even the ceiling and stairs are can-covered.)

8. Another Kind of “Can House”

And, as long as we’re doing interiors, here’s one more “can house” interior—of the moral turpitude type. (via snopes.com)

Interior photos of a rented townhouse in Ogden, Utah from 2005.

Beer cans by the tens of thousands. Mountains of cans burying the furniture. The water and heat were shut off, apparently on purpose by the tenant, who evidently drank Coors Light beer exclusively for the eight years he lived there.

Ryan Froerer, Century 21: “It’s just unbelievable that a human being could live like that.” …

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Note: The anamorphic can/house photo (1st photo composite, upper left) is from The Eleanor Roosevelt Community Learning Center web site.