Would You Real Estate Crowdfund The Garbage Warrior?

Build A House From Your Super Bowl Beer. Perfect timing! As your recycle bin overflows from the effects of Super Bowl festivities, we remind you that you can build a house from the contents. No matter what team you were rooting for, whether they won or lost, libations couldn’t have changed the game’s outcome, but the empty cans could change yours! Thanks to a renegade architect, your beer cans, car tires and water bottles have been recognized as tools that hold more than the substances that helped you forgive your favorite teams fumble. These reused items create thermal mass and energy-independent housing. Just ask eco architect Michael Reynolds. He is a quite a character, and with a cause that could be real estate crowdfunded!

Earthship Biotecture

No, not mothership. It doesn’t propel itself into the atmosphere, and it isn’t piloted by little green people sporting genetic antennae. Reynolds likes to call it Earthship biotecture. “It” refers to the effect of 30-years of devotion to designing and building cost-effective, eco-friendly communities that defy the norm: a sustainable living community test-site. They actually created one in Taos, New Mexico. They utilized garbage without using energy to recycle it. The Beer that put the super in your Super Bowl Sunday left cans like the remnants Reynolds used to build each home. There was no energy taxed in their re-use. And these remnants effected valuable natural clean energy. As natural disasters define our focus, Reynold’s team seems to be blazing a trail of relief. Mother nature is the great equalizer. The Garbage Warrior team offered their home building ingenuity to devastated communities. A movie by Oliver Hodge has captured three years of the efforts as they provide eco-harmonious solutions to four countries. When I first came across Reynolds three years ago, I thought “Wow! What a great concept, but how can anyone see the visionary’s gift over his almost violent passion?” I have been humbled yet again. Fly by the seat of your pants, Reynolds. Fly by whatever you choose, because you are onto something! The natural progression of untraditional innovation is untraditional funding, so I predict real estate crowdfunding will be successfully involved, and what an intriguing real estate crowdfunding campaign it would be!

Sustainability Simplified

Earthship Homes:

• Solar Powered
•  rainwater and sewage recycled within
• Constructed of reused materials
• Capitalizing on thermal mass (properties that provide inertia against fluctuating temperatures)

Biotecture:

• Our Garbage Warrior defined it as “The profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their sustainability using a combination of biology and architecture.” I wonder what Reynolds would have said about the Starchitecture phenomenon.

Related: 3 College Students & A Real Estate Crowdfunding Campaign Feed A Community

Pain On The Way To Success

The unique independent-living home construction trend caught on, and Reynold’s experimental homes were sought worldwide. Even actor Dennis Weaver commissioned his own million-dollar version in Colorado. But, Not everyone agreed with Reynold’s vision and methods to realize it. What Reynolds’ team supporters viewed as a great example of visionary progress, others saw as a rogue architect unsafely rebelling against a protective planning commission. Trial and error is a part of the eventual success of all projects. Reynolds was not immune to this fact, nor the painful cost of rebelling against code. The Garbage Warrior Community in New Mexico was cited for not having centralized utilities and for rebelling against other building & safety codes. Some of the original homes leaked and had other structural issues. The eco-incubator community was shut down and Reynold’s architecture license was forfeited. After a 17-year battle, Reynolds architecture license was reinstated and the sustaining-home construction resumed. He reluctantly adhered to the building codes he once protested. The Garbage Warrior is certainly a controversial character, but one who has inspired a sustainability movement for innovative minds. I am admittedly more cautious with my eco-friendly dreams, as I see some building codes as necessary consumer protection. I also recognize the value of an outspoken “trouble maker” to every grand cause. That person is the one who softens the blow of all quieter visionaries who follow. Michael Reynolds provided a veritable memory foam mattress to the innovative thinking community!

Common Ground: Prime Environment for Real Estate Crowdfunding

Frustrated with the opposition to his methods in the United States, the Garbage Warrior flew his crew to Adaman and Nicobar islands. Weeks after the Asian Tsunami, they saw the devastation of thousands of newly homeless survivors. Reynolds and his team taught the community how to use tires, plastic bottles, and bamboo to build homes that served an even greater purpose than mere shelter. The homes were structured to provide the inhabitants with drinking water, sanitation, and air-conditioning. Success after losing everything can be defeating, or merely humbling. Approval of the Indian authorities re-fueled Reynold’s inspiration to bring sustainability back to his beloved American neighbors. Even if Reynolds was still tortured by what he coined a “bureaucratic system", he and his team did return to the United States. They brought the same grand vision, combined with new experience and intrigue in tow. The Garbage Warrior has since been invited to lecture at the American Institute of Architects. As described by  supporters: “Second time around he is wiser, calmer and more prepared.” He has earned the support of the Indian communities and his crowd of supporters has suddenly grown exponentially. The next likely step is that he will apply other visionaries’ suggestions for refinement, as his world-wide support will turn into a crowd ready to fund progress. The recipe for one hugely successful real estate crowdfunding campaign! Everyone stands to gain.  It is possible that the evolution of Reynold’s renewed approach is one primed to benefit from the effects of appealing to all sides. Dare I call it compromise? That is a fete-accompli by any great mind. Reynolds and his Earthship Biotecture team are clearly incredible visionaries who have effected positive expansion to what was once seen as limited. You can even purchase construction drawings to build your own global model Earthship operation. The Sundance Film Festival "Garbage Warrior" movie is on my list to watch as soon as I recover from collecting post-Superbowl cans to build my next house. Just kidding. I am not quite there yet, but many people are, and my hat is off to them.

Let us know what you think. Has trading his hammers and drills for a suit and gentler communication created:  A wild new innovation more palatable to a wider crowd?  Or, 2) A the dead cause of an ineffective sell-out? 3) Would you consider contributing to a Garbage Warrior-type real estate crowdfunding campaign?