English - Creative houses from reclaimed stuff | Dan Phillips | TEDxHouston

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In this funny and insightful talk, builder Dan Phillips tours us through a dozen homes he's built in Texas using recycled and reclaimed materials in wildly creative ways. Brilliant, low-tech design details will refresh your own creative drive.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

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Title:
Creative houses from reclaimed stuff | Dan Phillips | TEDxHouston
Description:

In this funny and insightful talk, builder Dan Phillips tours us through a dozen homes he's built in Texas using recycled and reclaimed materials in wildly creative ways. Brilliant, low-tech design details will refresh your own creative drive.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
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I have a few pictures of what I do
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and I'll speak about some of them,
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and then I'll let them
continue to scroll
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as I talk a little bit
about how I'm able to do what I do.
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All these houses are built
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from between 70 and 80 percent
recycled material,
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stuff that was headed to the mulcher,
the landfill, the burn pile.
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It was all just gone.
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This is the first house I built.
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These are hickory nuts up there.
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This double front door here
with the three-light transom,
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that was headed to the landfill.
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Have a little turret there.
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And then these buttons
on the corbels here...
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Right there...
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Those are hickory nuts.
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And these buttons there...
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Those are chicken eggs.
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(Laughter)
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Of course, first you have breakfast,
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and then you fill the shell full
of Bondo and paint it and nail it up,
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and you have an architectural button
in just a fraction of the time.
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This is a look at the inside.
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You can see the three-light transom
there with the eyebrow windows.
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Certainly an architectural antique
headed to the landfill...
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Even the lockset
is probably worth 200 dollars.
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Everything in the kitchen was salvaged.
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There's a 1952 O'Keefe Merritt stove,
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if you like to cook... cool stove.
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This is going up into the turret.
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I got that staircase for 20 dollars,
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including delivery to my lot.
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(Laughter)
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Then, looking up in the turret,
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you see there are bulges
and pokes and sags and so forth.
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Well, if that ruins your life,
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well, then, you shouldn't live there.
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(Laughter)
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This is a laundry chute.
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And this right here is a shoe last...
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Those are those cast-iron things
you see at antique shops.
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So I had one of those,
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so I made some low-tech gadgetry,
where you just stomp on the shoe last,
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and then the door flies open
and you throw your laundry down.
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And then if you're smart enough,
it goes on a basket on top of the washer.
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If not, it goes into the toilet.
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(Laughter)
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This is a bathtub I made,
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made out of scrap two-by-four.
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Started with the rim, and then glued
and nailed it up into a flat,
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corbeled it up and flipped it over,
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then did the two profiles on this side.
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It's a two-person tub.
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After all, it's not just
a question of hygiene,
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but there's a possibility
of recreation as well.
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(Laughter)
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Then, this faucet here
is just a piece of Osage orange.
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It looks a little phallic,
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but after all, it's a bathroom.
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(Laughter)
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This is a house based on a Budweiser can.
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It doesn't look like a can of beer,
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but the design take-offs
are absolutely unmistakable:
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the barley hops design
worked up into the eaves,
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then the dentil work comes directly
off the can's red, white, blue and silver.
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Then, these corbels going
down underneath the eaves
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are that little design
that comes off the can.
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I just put a can on a copier
and kept enlarging it
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until I got the size I want.
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Then, on the can it says,
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"This is the famous Budweiser beer,
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we know of no other beer,
blah, blah, blah."
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So we changed that and put,
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"This is the famous Budweiser house.
We don't know of any other house ..."
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and so forth and so on.
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This is a deadbolt.
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It's a fence from a 1930s shaper,
which is a very angry woodworking machine.
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And they gave me the fence,
but they didn't give me the shaper,
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so we made a deadbolt out of it.
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That'll keep bull elephants
out, I promise.
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(Laughter)
215584 3:36 - 3:38

And sure enough, we've had
no problems with bull elephants.
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(Laughter)
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The shower is intended
to simulate a glass of beer.
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We've got bubbles going up there,
then suds at the top with lumpy tiles.
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Where do you get lumpy tiles?
Well, of course, you don't.
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But I get a lot of toilets, and so you
just dispatch a toilet with a hammer,
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and then you have lumpy tiles.
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And then the faucet is a beer tap.
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(Laughter)
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Then, this panel of glass
is the same panel of glass
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that occurs in every middle-class
front door in America.
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We're getting tired of it.
It's kind of clichéd now.
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If you put it in the front door,
your design fails.
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So don't put it in the front door;
put it somewhere else.
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It's a pretty panel of glass.
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But if you put it in the front door,
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people say, "Oh, you're trying
to be like those guys,
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and you didn't make it."
264047 4:24 - 4:25

So don't put it there.
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Then, another bathroom upstairs.
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This light up here
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is the same light that occurs
in every middle-class foyer in America.
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Don't put it in the foyer.
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Put it in the shower, or in the closet,
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but not in the foyer.
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Then, somebody gave me
a bidet, so it got a bidet.
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(Laughter)
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This little house here,
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those branches there are made
out of Bois d'arc or Osage orange.
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These pictures will keep scrolling
as I talk a little bit.
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In order to do what I do,
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you have to understand what causes
waste in the building industry.
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Our housing has become a commodity,
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and I'll talk a little bit about that.
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But the first cause of waste
is probably even buried in our DNA.
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Human beings have a need
for maintaining consistency
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of the apperceptive mass.
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What does that mean?
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What it means is,
for every perception we have,
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it needs to tally
with the one like it before,
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or we don't have continuity,
and we become a little bit disoriented.
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So I can show you an object
you've never seen before.
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Oh, that's a cell phone.
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But you've never seen this one before.
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What you're doing
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is sizing up the pattern
of structural features,
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and then you go through your databanks:
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Cell phone. Oh! That's a cell phone.
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If I took a bite out of it, you'd go,
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"Wait a second.
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(Laughter)
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"That's not a cell phone.
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That's one of those new
chocolate cell phones."
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(Laughter)
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You'd have to start a new category,
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right between cell phones and chocolate.
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(Laughter)
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That's how we process information.
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You translate that
to the building industry.
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If we have a wall of windowpanes
and one pane is cracked, we go,
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"Oh, dear. That's cracked.
Let's repair it.
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Let's take it out and throw it away
so nobody can use it
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and put a new one in."
371018 6:11 - 6:13

Because that's what you do
with a cracked pane.
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Never mind that it doesn't
affect our lives at all.
375748 6:16 - 6:20

It only rattles that expected pattern
and unity of structural features.
380556 6:21 - 6:23

However, if we took a small hammer,
383008 6:23 - 6:26

and we added cracks
to all the other windows...
385598 6:26 - 6:28

(Laughter)
387623 6:28 - 6:29

then we have a pattern.
388861 6:29 - 6:32

Because Gestalt psychology
emphasizes recognition of pattern
391952 6:32 - 6:34

over parts that comprise a pattern.
394007 6:34 - 6:36

We'll go, "Ooh, that's nice."
395810 6:36 - 6:39

So, that serves me every day.
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Repetition creates pattern.
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If I have 100 of these, 100 of those,
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it makes no difference
what these and those are.
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If I can repeat anything,
I have the possibility of a pattern,
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from hickory nuts and chicken eggs,
shards of glass, branches.
410764 6:51 - 6:52

It doesn't make any difference.
412302 6:52 - 6:55

That causes a lot of waste
in the building industry.
414854 6:55 - 6:56

The second cause is,
416029 6:56 - 6:58

Friedrich Nietzsche, along about 1885,
417954 6:58 - 7:00

wrote a book titled
"The Birth of Tragedy."
420285 7:00 - 7:01

And in there,
421893 7:02 - 7:05

he said cultures tend to swing
between one of two perspectives:
424931 7:05 - 7:08

on the one hand,
we have an Apollonian perspective,
428175 7:08 - 7:12

which is very crisp and premeditated
and intellectualized
431978 7:12 - 7:14

and perfect.
434681 7:15 - 7:18

On the other end of the spectrum,
we have a Dionysian perspective,
437917 7:18 - 7:20

which is more given
to the passions and intuition,
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tolerant of organic texture
and human gesture.
443127 7:23 - 7:28

So the way the Apollonian personality
takes a picture or hangs a picture is,
448470 7:28 - 7:30

they'll get out a transit
450370 7:30 - 7:32

and a laser level
452046 7:32 - 7:33

and a micrometer.
453750 7:34 - 7:36

"OK, honey. A thousandth
of an inch to the left.
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That's where we want
the picture. Right. Perfect!"
458451 7:38 - 7:41

Predicated on plumb level,
square and centered.
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The Dionysian personality
takes the picture and goes:
466280 7:46 - 7:50

(Laughter)
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That's the difference.
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I feature blemish.
473825 7:54 - 7:56

I feature organic process.
475905 7:56 - 7:57

Dead center John Dewey.
478416 7:58 - 8:03

Apollonian mindset
creates mountains of waste.
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If something isn't perfect,
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if it doesn't line up
with that premeditated model?
487204 8:07 - 8:08

Dumpster.
488379 8:08 - 8:10

"Oops. Scratch. Dumpster."
489667 8:10 - 8:12

"Oops" this, "oops" that.
Landfill, landfill, landfill.
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The third thing is arguably...
494949 8:15 - 8:17

The Industrial Revolution
started in the Renaissance
497426 8:17 - 8:19

with the rise of humanism,
498704 8:19 - 8:22

then got a little jump start
along about the French Revolution.
501693 8:22 - 8:24

By the middle of the 19th century,
it's in full flower.
504345 8:24 - 8:27

And we have dumaflaches and gizmos
506976 8:27 - 8:30

and contraptions that will do anything
510245 8:30 - 8:32

that we, up to that point,
512109 8:32 - 8:34

had to do by hand.
513884 8:34 - 8:36

So now we have standardized materials.
515982 8:36 - 8:39

Well, trees don't grow
two inches by four inches,
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eight, ten and twelve feet tall.
520571 8:41 - 8:42

(Laughter)
521620 8:42 - 8:43

We create mountains of waste.
523067 8:43 - 8:47

And they're doing a pretty good job
there in the forest,
526632 8:47 - 8:49

working all the byproduct
of their industry...
529148 8:49 - 8:52

With OSB and particle board
and so forth and so on...
531934 8:52 - 8:54

But it does no good
533753 8:54 - 8:57

to be responsible at the point
of harvest in the forest
536850 8:57 - 9:00

if consumers are wasting the harvest
at the point of consumption.
540233 9:00 - 9:02

And that's what's happening.
542114 9:02 - 9:04

And so if something isn't standard,
543850 9:04 - 9:07

"Oops, dumpster." "Oops" this.
"Oops, warped."
546807 9:07 - 9:09

If you buy a two-by-four
and it's not straight,
549060 9:09 - 9:10

you can take it back.
550344 9:10 - 9:13

"Oh, I'm so sorry, sir.
We'll get you a straight one."
552979 9:13 - 9:16

Well, I feature all those warped things
556295 9:16 - 9:18

because repetition creates pattern,
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and it's from a Dionysian perspective.
560163 9:20 - 9:21

The fourth thing
561469 9:21 - 9:25

is labor is disproportionately
more expensive than materials.
565219 9:25 - 9:27

Well, that's just a myth.
566733 9:27 - 9:28

And there's a story:
567919 9:28 - 9:31

Jim Tulles, one of the guys I trained...
I said, "Jim, it's time now.
571502 9:32 - 9:35

I got a job for you as a foreman
on a framing crew. Time for you to go."
574941 9:35 - 9:37

"Dan, I just don't think I'm ready."
576716 9:37 - 9:40

"Jim, now it's time.
You're the down... oh!"
579706 9:40 - 9:41

So we hired on.
581081 9:41 - 9:45

And he was out there with a tape measure,
going through the trash heap,
584582 9:45 - 9:48

looking for header material,
or the board that goes over a door,
587706 9:48 - 9:51

thinking he'd impress his boss...
That's how we taught him to do it.
590951 9:51 - 9:54

The superintendent walked up
and said, "What are you doing?"
593826 9:54 - 9:56

"Oh, just looking for header material,"
595770 9:56 - 9:57

waiting for that kudos.
596955 9:57 - 10:00

He said, "I'm not paying you to go
through the trash. Get back to work."
600437 10:00 - 10:02

And Jim had the wherewithal to say,
602169 10:02 - 10:06

"You know, if you were paying me
300 dollars an hour,
605567 10:06 - 10:08

I can see how you might say that.
607608 10:08 - 10:11

But right now, I'm saving you
five dollars a minute.
610709 10:11 - 10:12

Do the math."
612081 10:12 - 10:14

(Laughter)
614429 10:14 - 10:18

"Good call, Tulles. From now on,
you guys hit this pile first."
617667 10:18 - 10:20

And the irony is that he wasn't
very good at math.
620166 10:20 - 10:24

(Laughter)
623596 10:24 - 10:26

But once in a while,
you get access to the control room,
626271 10:26 - 10:28

and then you can
kind of mess with the dials.
628404 10:28 - 10:30

And that's what happened there.
630638 10:31 - 10:33

The fifth thing is that maybe,
after 2,500 years,
633061 10:33 - 10:36

Plato is still having his way with us
in his notion of perfect forms.
636403 10:36 - 10:41

He said that we have in our noggin
the perfect idea of what we want,
640599 10:41 - 10:44

and we force environmental
resources to accommodate that.
643600 10:44 - 10:46

So we all have in our head
the perfect house,
646082 10:46 - 10:48

the American dream, which is a house,
648336 10:48 - 10:50

the dream house.
649947 10:50 - 10:52

The problem is we can't afford it.
651750 10:52 - 10:54

So we have the American dream look-alike,
653750 10:54 - 10:55

which is a mobile home.
655086 10:55 - 10:57

Now there's a blight on the planet.
657400 10:57 - 10:59

(Laughter)
658678 10:59 - 11:00

It's a chattel mortgage,
660422 11:00 - 11:02

just like furniture, just like a car.
662423 11:02 - 11:06

You write the check,
and instantly, it depreciates 30 percent.
665579 11:06 - 11:09

After a year, you can't get insurance
on everything you have in it,
668810 11:09 - 11:10

only on 70 percent.
670105 11:10 - 11:12

Wired with 14-Gauge wire, typically.
671878 11:12 - 11:13

Nothing wrong with that,
673070 11:13 - 11:16

unless you ask it to do
what 12-Gauge wire's supposed to do,
675940 11:16 - 11:17

and that's what happens.
677167 11:17 - 11:19

It out-gasses formaldehyde...
678672 11:19 - 11:23

So much so that there is
a federal law in place
682837 11:23 - 11:27

to warn new mobile home buyers
of the formaldehyde atmosphere danger.
687425 11:27 - 11:29

Are we just being numbingly stupid?
689495 11:29 - 11:31

The walls are this thick.
691326 11:31 - 11:34

The whole thing has
the structural value of corn.
694327 11:34 - 11:36

(Laughter)
696234 11:36 - 11:39

"So... I thought Palm Harbor
Village was over there."
698830 11:39 - 11:41

"No, no. We had a wind last night.
700892 11:41 - 11:42

It's gone now."
702488 11:42 - 11:46

(Laughter)
705750 11:46 - 11:48

Then when they degrade,
what do you do with them?
708559 11:49 - 11:50

Now, all that...
710826 11:51 - 11:54

That Apollonian, Platonic model...
713598 11:54 - 11:56

Is what the building industry
is predicated on,
716185 11:56 - 11:59

and there are a number of things
that exacerbate that.
718885 11:59 - 12:01

One is that all the professionals,
721427 12:01 - 12:03

all the tradesmen, vendors,
723118 12:03 - 12:05

inspectors, engineers, architects
725520 12:06 - 12:07

all think like this.
727638 12:08 - 12:10

And then it works its way
back to the consumer,
729868 12:10 - 12:11

who demands the same model.
731336 12:11 - 12:14

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We can't get out of it.
734471 12:14 - 12:17

Then here come the marketeers
and the advertisers.
737071 12:17 - 12:19

"Woo. Woo-hoo."
740119 12:20 - 12:23

We buy stuff we didn't know we needed.
742750 12:23 - 12:25

All we have to do
is look at what one company did
745306 12:25 - 12:27

with carbonated prune juice.
747321 12:27 - 12:29

How disgusting.
748750 12:29 - 12:31

(Laughter)
750566 12:31 - 12:32

But you know what they did?
751898 12:32 - 12:35

They hooked a metaphor into it
and said, "I drink Dr. Pepper ..."
754998 12:35 - 12:38

And pretty soon, we're swilling
that stuff by the lake-ful,
758016 12:38 - 12:40

by the billions of gallons.
759751 12:40 - 12:43

It doesn't even have real prunes!
Doesn't even keep you regular.
762912 12:43 - 12:45

(Laughter)
764696 12:45 - 12:47

My oh my, that makes it worse.
766750 12:47 - 12:50

And we get sucked
into that faster than anything.
769970 12:50 - 12:53

Then, a man named
Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a book
772703 12:53 - 12:54

titled "Being and Nothingness."
774212 12:54 - 12:57

It's a pretty quick read.
You can snap through it in maybe...
777158 12:57 - 12:58

(Laughter)
778246 12:58 - 12:59

maybe two years,
779422 12:59 - 13:01

if you read eight hours a day.
781750 13:02 - 13:04

In there, he talked
about the divided self.
784087 13:04 - 13:07

He said human beings act differently
when they know they're alone
787189 13:07 - 13:09

than when they know
somebody else is around.
789273 13:09 - 13:12

So if I'm eating spaghetti,
and I know I'm alone,
791599 13:12 - 13:13

I can eat like a backhoe.
793091 13:13 - 13:16

I can wipe my mouth on my sleeve,
napkin on the table,
796329 13:16 - 13:20

chew with my mouth open,
make little noises,
799670 13:20 - 13:22

scratch wherever I want.
801671 13:22 - 13:24

(Laughter)
803555 13:24 - 13:25

But as soon as you walk in,
805026 13:25 - 13:28

I go, "Oops! Lil' spaghetti sauce there."
807528 13:28 - 13:29

Napkin in my lap, half-bites,
809405 13:29 - 13:32

chew with my mouth closed, no scratching.
814267 13:34 - 13:38

Now, what I'm doing
is fulfilling your expectations
818121 13:38 - 13:40

of how I should live my life.
821419 13:41 - 13:43

I feel that expectation,
823225 13:43 - 13:45

and so I accommodate it,
824665 13:45 - 13:48

and I'm living my life according
to what you expect me to do.
827935 13:48 - 13:50

That happens in the building
industry as well.
830230 13:50 - 13:53

That's why all subdivisions look the same.
833109 13:53 - 13:58

Sometimes, we even have
these formalized cultural expectations.
837849 13:58 - 14:00

I'll bet all your shoes match.
839750 14:00 - 14:02

Sure enough, we all buy into that...
841959 14:02 - 14:04

(Laughter)
843633 14:04 - 14:06

And with gated communities,
846082 14:06 - 14:08

we have a formalized expectation,
848482 14:08 - 14:10

with a homeowners' association.
850084 14:10 - 14:12

Sometimes those guys are Nazis,
851806 14:12 - 14:13

my oh my.
854130 14:14 - 14:17

That exacerbates and continues this model.
857912 14:18 - 14:20

The last thing is gregariousness.
860608 14:21 - 14:23

Human beings are a social species.
862545 14:23 - 14:25

We like to hang together in groups,
865267 14:25 - 14:28

just like wildebeests, just like lions.
868071 14:28 - 14:30

Wildebeests don't hang with lions,
869751 14:30 - 14:31

because lions eat wildebeests.
871790 14:32 - 14:33

Human beings are like that.
873260 14:33 - 14:35

We do what that group does
875380 14:35 - 14:37

that we're trying to identify with.
877782 14:38 - 14:40

You see this in junior high a lot.
880391 14:40 - 14:45

Those kids, they'll work
all summer long... kill themselves...
884786 14:45 - 14:49

So that they can afford
one pair of designer jeans.
889018 14:49 - 14:51

So along about September,
891300 14:51 - 14:53

they can stride in and go,
893301 14:53 - 14:58

"I'm important today. See?
Don't touch my designer jeans!
897539 14:58 - 15:00

I see you don't have designer jeans.
900400 15:00 - 15:04

You're not one of the beautiful...
See, I'm one of the beautiful people.
904120 15:04 - 15:05

See my jeans?"
905332 15:05 - 15:08

Right there is reason
enough to have uniforms.
908285 15:08 - 15:11

And so that happens
in the building industry as well.
911778 15:12 - 15:16

We have confused
Maslow's hierarchy of needs,
916021 15:16 - 15:18

just a little bit.
917650 15:18 - 15:21

On the bottom tier, we have basic needs:
921028 15:21 - 15:25

shelter, clothing, food,
water, mating and so forth.
924586 15:25 - 15:27

Second: security. Third: relationships.
926948 15:27 - 15:30

Fourth: status, self-esteem...
That is, vanity...
929990 15:30 - 15:33

And we're taking vanity
and shoving it down here.
933443 15:33 - 15:35

And so we end up
935927 15:36 - 15:38

with vain decisions,
938705 15:39 - 15:41

and we can't even afford our mortgage.
940921 15:41 - 15:44

We can't afford to eat
anything except beans;
943699 15:44 - 15:47

that is, our housing
has become a commodity.
947913 15:48 - 15:51

And it takes a little bit of nerve
951223 15:51 - 15:54

to dive into those primal,
953650 15:54 - 15:56

terrifying parts of ourselves
956650 15:57 - 15:59

and make our own decisions
959102 15:59 - 16:01

and not make our housing a commodity,
961103 16:01 - 16:05

but make it something
that bubbles up from seminal sources.
964650 16:05 - 16:06

That takes a little bit of nerve,
966451 16:06 - 16:09

and, darn it, once in a while, you fail.
970073 16:10 - 16:12

But that's okay.
973280 16:13 - 16:15

If failure destroys you,
975092 16:15 - 16:16

then you can't do this.
976346 16:16 - 16:19

I fail all the time, every day,
978876 16:19 - 16:23

and I've had some whopping
failures, I promise...
983712 16:24 - 16:27

Big, public, humiliating,
embarrassing failures.
986750 16:27 - 16:28

Everybody points and laughs,
988214 16:28 - 16:31

and they say, "He tried it a fifth time,
and it still didn't work!
991334 16:31 - 16:33

What a moron!"
992738 16:33 - 16:35

Early on, contractors come by and say,
994750 16:35 - 16:37

"Dan, you're a cute little bunny,
996537 16:37 - 16:39

but you know,
this just isn't going to work.
998719 16:39 - 16:41

What don't you do this?
Why don't you do that?"
1001074 16:41 - 16:44

And your instinct is to say,
1003604 16:44 - 16:45

"Well, why don't you suck an egg?"
1005295 16:45 - 16:47

(Laughter)
1006750 16:47 - 16:48

But you don't say that,
1008438 16:48 - 16:51

because they're the guys you're targeting.
1011391 16:51 - 16:54

And so what we've done...
1014394 16:54 - 16:58

And this isn't just in housing;
it's in clothing and food
1017811 16:58 - 17:01

and our transportation
needs, our energy...
1020688 17:01 - 17:03

We sprawl just a little bit.
1024195 17:04 - 17:07

And when I get a little bit of press,
1026750 17:07 - 17:09

I hear from people all over the world.
1029059 17:09 - 17:12

And we may have invented excess,
1031902 17:12 - 17:15

but the problem of waste is worldwide.
1036384 17:16 - 17:19

We're in trouble.
1039385 17:19 - 17:22

And I don't wear ammo belts
crisscrossing my chest
1042463 17:22 - 17:24

and a red bandana.
1044575 17:25 - 17:26

But we're clearly in trouble.
1046798 17:27 - 17:31

And what we need to do is reconnect
1050750 17:31 - 17:34

with those really primal
parts of ourselves
1054411 17:34 - 17:36

and make some decisions and say,
1056481 17:36 - 17:41

"You know, I think I would like to put
CDs across the wall there.
1061234 17:41 - 17:43

What do you think, honey?"
1063211 17:43 - 17:45

If it doesn't work, take it down.
1066059 17:46 - 17:49

What we need to do is reconnect
with who we really are,
1069662 17:50 - 17:52

and that's thrilling indeed.
1072683 17:53 - 17:54

Thank you very much.
1073890 17:54 - 17:58

(Applause)

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← Creative houses from reclaimed stuff | Dan Phillips | TEDxHouston

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