12-year-old Makes Homeless Shelter from Trash

Well, this is a bit of fresh air, especially with tween news like Baby-Faced Boy Alfie Patten Is Dad At 13.

12-year-old Max Wallack stole the show at Design Squad’s Trash to Treasure contest with his “Home Dome.” The contest asked kids to repurpose trash into practical inventions.

I wonder if the Home Dome gets an honorable LEED Certification?

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The dome provides shelter for the homeless and is made from plastic, wire, packing peanuts, and flargstin. Pretty much, trash.

The trash-plex looks like a Mongolian yurt, and let Max walk away with $10,000 and a Dell laptop. He also got a trip to Boston out of it. But Max had this to say, “I don’t really care about the money. I care about helping people.”

This isn’t his first big win. “When I was six,” Max said, “I won an invention contest that included a trip to Chicago. While there, I saw homeless people living on streets, and beneath highways and underpasses. I felt very sorry for these people, and ever since then, felt that my goal and obligation was to find a way to help them. My invention improves the living conditions for homeless people, refugees, or disaster victims by giving them easy-to-assemble shelter.”

Go Max! We all look forward to your future inventions.

Source and Photo:  thedesignblog.org

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193 Comments

  1. Hey there, Kameron?

    I hope you wind up homeless or displaced and someone offers you a shelter like this that’s a little too flammable for your taste. Then we can see how you feel about the relative merits of a fire hazard vs. freezing to death.

    In fact, scratch that. I actually hope you get homeless or displaced and nobody offers you anything at all, just like you seem to want.

    You could have said “maybe it could be made with slightly less fire-prone materials, but otherwise a good idea,” or even “hey, maybe people would just have to understand that they’d have to be really careful not to smoke in the damn thing, but that’s a pretty small price to pay for not being found frozen solid.”

    But no. It could start a big nasty FIRE, so without offering any alternative, you heap SHAME on others. Pretty easy to say, while you’re comfortable in your home or office. You make me sick.

  2. That is so totally WICKED man! I was like so totally blown away at the message! It was like so touching like for sure! Awesome!

  3. In response to: Kameron C Cayce II said “This is incredibly dangerous. It goes against every building and fire code there is here in the United States and much of the world. … anyone in the vicinity that inhaled them.
    SHAME on this group awarding this kind of tremendous hazard being created.”

    IF you will consider the structures are being suggested for homeless people…who traditionally fail to observe even the simplest of safety regulations…eating old food, drinking and smoking what they can find, not maintaining proper hygiene and medical care. These people often are responsible for deaths and property damage because they “move into” facilities that are not legally theirs. They destroy them and show little signs of being concerned about others.
    This attempt by a child to find some way to help them is not to be belittled by you and your comments. He had an idea and submitted it. This company now has the chance to “adapt/modify” his creation to make it safer and more acceptable to society.
    Rewarding this child for his efforts and ingenuity is appropriate. We must teach our children to look to create and build things which will benefit mankind. If the incentive to attempt new experiments, try different things or research other ideas is inappropriate, I suggest you consider the “incentives” many medical research groups receive before you shake your finger at this group.
    It never fails someone always tries to ruin a winner’s glory out of jealousy and spitefulness for their own shortcomings.

  4. [...] Source and Photo:  thedesignblog.org Found at:  GreenBuildingElements.com [...]

  5. cool idea makes ya think where are we going?

  6. Uh, yeah…a firehazard…who cares if it’s a firehazard…he only made one and it was for a PROJECT…it went to show that he was using his 12 year old brain. Fire codes? Give me a break already! Give the kid some kudos…most kids are running amock…like for instance…joe’s kid…who probably hates him for the negative remark he made about the kid in the first place. Joe…shut up. Kameron…get off your high horse…no wonder our kids can’t get ready to leave the home…there is no validation of feelings…you guys are just jealous you didn’t think of it first.

  7. People just don’t value the services of a qualified, or at the very least thoughtful, Architect or home designer. They are more concerned with overabundance of space and a prestigious address. I will say in defense of this particular project, from the looks of the remaining snow on the roof and the various shadows, that it is somewhat likely that the front elevation of the house is actually more northerly facing. In which case, there may be a a multitude of windows on the opposite side. And, they did use some exterior materials with some higher heat-gain properties than say vinyl. As far as being moldy, proper construction and ventilation is the best defense against mold.
    Mitchell - Grand Rapids, MI

  8. who cares if this is a liquid fire hazard or a homeless crackhouse! This kid is 12! I wish my mind was open to ideas like that when i was 12! Plus he was not judged on how hazardous his idea was but on his creativity and he killed it!!! Go Max!!

  9. I think the kid has an incredible imagination abd instead of finding fault and criticizing , you should be celebrating that he’s willing to go out on a limb and try instead of sitting home playing video games. sure it’s got its’ impracticabilites but the first rocket didn’t get to the moon, and einstein wasn’t considered a genius with his first thought.
    GIVE THE KID A BREAK….TRY SOMETHING YOURSELF AND SEE IF YOU CAN HANDLE THE HEAT YOU’RE THROWING AT HIM

  10. This green movement is so much BS. I cant believe intelligent people follow idiots like the GREENHOUSE GURUS. This is just another scam to make trillions of dollars off of this scam/scare tactic. Remember the mold scam? Remember the asbestos scam??? Remember the lead paint scare? Remember the mercury scare?? Lawyers made millions on these scams!!!!!Please people, use your common sense. Don’t just follow these pied piper scam artists into the ocean….

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