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Go local and you will have a better chance of sustainability than buing bulk from a mass-production warehouse somewhere, or so the odds go. What about old grain silos, which you can find everywhere unused and just falling apart in some cases.
Yes, they can, say a group of students, although the students didn’t actually use a real silo for their construction. They used custom-made cylinders. But the stretch isn’t far to see that real silos could be used instead of cylindars that are just like silos.
In this case, Cornell University students cut an old empty silo into three and used that as the basis of a solar house. The square lifted solar panels have an architectural function — offsetting the round circles of the silos — as well as the functional function of producing energy for the silo-dwellers.
Each silo is a room, more or less. One is a living room/courtyard. This courtyard connects to the other two silos, which are a kitchen and a bedroom.
However, although it seems there is no reason sustainability-practicioners couldn’t actually do this with a silo, there is a question of silo material interchangeability. Are all silos in that region going to be the same size? or will custom replicable parts be necessary?
Well, if you have any doubts about using silos and turning them into homes, here is one that was built out of an actual silo.
