The next ten years will be harsh for London when it comes to finding housing for its ever-growing population. According to a report made by BBC, by the 2021 there will be a need of additional 800 000 houses and apartments on top of the already existing in order to facilitate the growing the demands.
In these hard and uncertain times, a group of enthusiasts in the field of rubbish removals, waste management and environmental protection seemingly have found a pretty unlikely solution. What we are talking about a group project by the company Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and YMCA London South West, which aims at beginning the mass production of cheap, stylish and one hundred percent environment friendly houses entirely from recycled materials.
As it was already mentioned, the materials to be used for those houses would be entirely reused from trash disposed by residents of the capital. They would be up to 280 sq. feet. The small size and the nature of the materials employed for the task would allow shortening of the period for production considerably. Yes, it would not be the mansion or penthouse everyone dreams of, but such homes can be surprisingly functional and much more comfortable than larger places. And much cheaper to maintain too, which is a factor worth considering.
This is some very exciting news. If everything goes as planned and the production actually begins, the project has the potential to fix a number of pretty serious problems that become bigger and bigger every year. The first one if of course the problem with housing. Not only new solutions are needed and are going to be needed even more in the near future, as it already became clear from the survey cited above, but property prices in London increase every year, making the capital unaffordable for many people. This would not be a problem at all with the new cheap recycled houses.
On the other hand the new recycled home solutions are going to fix the problem with waste disposal. London is one of the largest cities in the world and as such it produces towering amounts of junk that, no matter how well managed, damage the environment in a pretty bad way. We cannot afford to hurt nature anymore – the recent weather changes and the growing concern of specialists in the field show that. Using recycled materials in order to build a home for oneself will first fix the many problems with junk piling on the landfills. Then again, since no new materials would be required for building houses, they would not be produced. Mass industrial production is another major reason for pollution and finding such alternative solutions that would decrease the temps of it is the key to living an environmentally responsible life and help the planet.
That is why building recycled homes will make the world a better place. Who knows – the trend might catch and spread throughout the world? We will see pretty soon.