In 1975, Reynolds stood smiling in the New Mexico sun.
He and his team built the Thumb House in Taos, New Mexico. Shown below, it's the first structure made almost entirely out of beer and pop cans. The curved walls allow the cans to support more weight, resulting in pie-shaped rooms.
"The beer can idea started in the early '70s when they first started doing TV [broadcasts] about old steel cans being thrown all over the streets and highways," Reynolds says.
I ended up using the cans as bricks," he says. "And it just kind of opened up the door.
But constructing an entire house required many more cans than just litter could provide — about 70,000.
In a time before widespread recycling, Reynolds and his team visited local businesses for materials. "We'd just go to a bar and ask, 'What do you do with your cans?'" he says.
That's the way it is in nature," Reynolds says. "There's a use for everything.
Reynolds calls these houses a "very low-tech, low-skill way to build." Since his first house, Reynolds and his team often travel to developing countries to teach his methods.
Initially, he and his team created makeshift bricks, like the one below, from beer cans. Made of eight cans, it weighs 14 ounces and cost 15 cents.
Then, they mortared the blocks to form walls.
But Reynolds soon realized they could use the cans as-is. The air inside, along with foam sheets, acts as an insulator, keeping the structure energy-efficient.
Using the new method, he and his team could also place the cans closer together.
Even within finished walls, cans stay visible, creating a unique aesthetic.
Like all houses, the structure began with support beams. It looked like a normal construction site.
Minus all the empty cans.
People are recognizing these things are natural resources," Reynolds says, "that garbage can be useful and beautiful.
Reynolds even patented his brick design in 1973.
Aside from the foundation, Reynolds used other "garbage" for portions of the house, like bottles as stained-glass windows.
He continued making houses, calling the practice "earthship biotecture."
Roof-lawns on some houses let residents grow much of their own food.
But the insides of the homes look entirely normal — and inviting.
The owners of this one said the foundation seemed solid and that the house's functions worked well.
Reynolds even lived in one of his creations, shown below.
He slept in this room, modeled after the Great Pyramids, and kept a journal of his experiences.
Today, Reynolds runs Earthship Biotecture, a sustainable architecture firm founded on the same principles as the can houses. "The buildings are completely self-sustaining," he says.
"Earthships," like this design in Phoenix, heat and cool themselves naturally, produce their own electricity, collect their own water from rain and snow, treat their own sewage, and grow a significant amount of their own food.
At this point, Reynolds and his team have built a few thousand earthships in almost every country around the world. Celebrities like Dennis Weaver have even commissioned Reynolds to build them million-dollar homes.
It's a structure that will absolutely take care of you without any infrastructure," Reynolds says. "And in today's day in age, that's in high demand.
"Tiny houses" also contribute to the growing movement of sustainable architecture.
