You Won’t Believe What’s in the Walls of This House

The Brighton Waste House is made of 85% ‘waste’ material, including over 20,000 toothbrushes that were only used once by airline passengers flying into London Gatwick.

A Community Effort

Over 300 students at the University of Brighton worked from May 2013 to April 2014 to complete the building created from locally sourced waste material from building sites, recycling centres, and homes in the area. The project exists under the mantra that, “there is no such thing as waste, just things in the wrong place.”

What Else is in This House?!

And some of the materials that were just “in the wrong place” included old vinyl banners from festivals, cassette tapes, 10 tonnes of chalk waste, thrown-away bricks and ply sheets, among other materials.

The Efforts Continue

Now that the Waste House has been completed for nearly two years, over 750 students from local primary school have visited the site and it is consistently used to house workshops and seminars conducted through the University of Brighton.

Making an Impact

The project came about as part of the University of Brighton’s pledge to decrease their carbon emissions by 50% by 2015. They reached that goal. Each year, the house is monitored for insulation efficiency, which is currently sitting at 12 hours for warmth to get through the 35cm thick walls, mostly insulated by rammed earth.

For more information, check out the University of Brighton’s Waste House website.