Poop House by Andrew Maynard
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.17.07
Andrew Maynard is at it again, with Poop House, his answer to the Australian drought. Water is too valuable to be just something that is just used; he turns it into the main structural element of the building. Thinking that the greenest building is no building at all, the structure is nothing but an inner and outer layer of polyethylene forms. When you build your house you purchase enough water to fill the inner transparent form, which takes the shape of an arch.
As you use the water from the inner arch, it is then pumped into the outer arch; the weight of the outer black and grey water keeps the inner arch in place as the water is moved from one to another.
As the solids in the black water settle to the bottom, the liquids are removed, reprocessed and re-used so that it is a closed system. Eventually after about 20 years the outer arch is filled with dry solid waste, and the inner arch can be removed or refilled.
Another provocative and brilliant idea from ::Andrew Maynard Architects via the always fascinating ::Myninjaplease see earlier ones ::here and ::here
Is the plastic used in this house safe to hold the drinking water or will it release chemicals into the water?
love the idea of this, maynard pushes the boundaries again. i would just be worried about the durability of the shell and any off-gassing from all the stored waste.
Is it just me or does this sound like a dumb idea. What do you do with the plastic in 20 years when it's full of shit?
That is absolutely vile.
Well what can I say? The really clever idea here is to use water as a structural element. A hydraulic house. The downside as I see it is that the water would need to be kept at high pressure to maintain the shape - stick a pair of scissors into the wall and several tons of water structure come crashing down on your head... not a great marketing point. If the water were frozen that would be more sensible and I recall a proposal at some point to build a bridge out of ice - basically building a highly insulated shell and filling it with water and freezer compressors. This idea would also work in very cold place (like the ice hotel in Sweden).
If you can make the high pressure system foolproof and puncture-proof then it would be a cool idea but I can't see the idea going anywhere as it is.
As for filling the walls with sh1t, well that's just stupid I reckon. We have sewerage treatment plants for a reason.
Seems like a waste of all that good nutrient to make it a building material.
sounds like some other bourgeois concept....