Architecturally the concept of sustainability “green architecture” has been flouting for a while by using recycled materials and energy efficient products. However I think the concept of recycling materials is not that sustainable. There is a lot of wasted energy in the process of recycling the materials. A hero of sustainable architecture is Michael Reynolds who has found a way to work with raw garbage; he describes his designs by using non-reprocessed materials. He argues that there is a lot of wasted energy that goes into the recycling process. In fact he started his movement before the oil crisis. In 1971 he built his first house from recycled materials. The structures built under his direction utilize everyday trash items like aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Instead of using conventional (and energy-consuming) recycling methods. Reynolds takes the redundant item and uses it as is. His Thumb House built in 1972, used beer cans wired together into "bricks," which were mortared together and then plastered over. Reynolds interest in sustainable architecture has increased as global warming started to occur. I think that Reynolds has successfully managed to find a way to cover three main categories of sustainability the ecological, social and economic contexts. In his recent project “Earthships” ecologically he is using material local to the entire planet as well as recycled materials wherever possible. The houses would rely on natural energy sources and be independent from the “grid”. Socially A family of four could totally survive here without having to go to the store, which will force the family to spend more time together working on farming. Economically it would be practical for the average person with no specialized construction skills to be able to create an Earthship. In the housing project “Earthship” Reynolds describes his walls as walls that have a high resistive value where he uses tires as thermal mass, he fill the tires with dirt and stack them above and against each other to create. 

In his In documentary movie "Garbage Warrior," Reynolds describes one of his new homes, called the Phoenix: "There's nothing coming into this house, no power lines, no gas lines, no sewage lines coming out, no water lines coming in, no energy being used ... We're sitting on 6,000 gallons of water, growing food, sewage internalized, 70 degrees year-round ... What these kind of houses are doing is taking every aspect of your life and putting it into your own hands ...” that is so true, living in an Earthship is a complete life cycle rain water is collected for drinking and bathing where the bathing water goes into the toilet and the flushed water goes in planning. There fore is no waste. Reynolds work by looking at the bigger scale, he considers all aspects and think of the impact of materials on the long run. Unlike Solar decathlon where it is more about wining the prize and promoting for schools. Reynolds has successfully managed to influence other countries and nations to take an act towards global worming. In 2004 he built an Earthship in United Kingdom and South Africa.