MIKE REYNOLDS: THE ARCHITECT WHO DESIGNED HOUSING OUT OF CANS FOR THE NEEDY

Housing with tin walls. This was the dream of American architect Mike Reynolds, who designed countless projects for the needy. His particular heterodoxy in understanding his profession is known worldwide.

This veteran architect was responsible for the earthship architectural concept, totally self-sufficient houses built with recycled materials. Since 1970, it has been expanding its ecological and sustainable ideas in the construction and design of buildings, and has been of enormous help in countries facing major natural disasters such as Bangladesh, which suffered the consequences of the great tsunami that devastated the Pacific in 2004, or the state of New Orleans (United States), which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Reynolds is in favor of reusing everyday materials that we have on hand and that in too many occasions and places are discarded without considering alternatives other than throwing them directly into the trash. Therefore, glass bottles, plastic bottles, tire wheels or beverage cans are some of their great weapons to build cheap, ecological and, in many cases, emergency housing.

Precisely from reused beverage cans are made the Can Walls, aluminum can walls that were conceived by the American architect as an insulating or separating layer for the interiors of the houses that are not part of the building structure, that is, for the partition walls.

The cans are stacked horizontally and joined with concrete. Once a whole wall has been lifted, only the aluminum circles belonging to one end of the cans are visible. The new wall can then be covered with cement or adobe.

If Can Walls are built as exterior walls they can serve as insulation against heat, but they require two layers: a wall of cans glued one in front of the other, with a layer of some other insulating material in between. The part of the recycled wall facing the exterior is covered with several layers of cement, depending on the climate, and the part facing the interior is covered with adobe.

The only drawback given the characteristics of empty beverage cans is that they cannot support much weight, so Can Walls cannot be used to lift an entire house. They would need columns to support the weight of the roof.