AirBNB put the call out around the world to design a crazy house, offering contestants part of the $10 million OMG Fund to build it. Tens of thousands of people started the process, but 100 people representing 20 countries stood victorious as their designs were chosen.
One of those winners is West Michigan couple Clayton Brown and Kimberly Sullivan, who took the challenge and turned it into an innovative, sustainable solution by using old tires.
The couple owns 23 acres of land surrounded by forest in southwest Michigan. Shortly after they bought the property they found a mountain of used tires on it, as part of the property used to be a junkyard.
They searched for options to get rid of the pile of tires, but with only being able to recycle four tires and year and the cost of removing them being out of their budget, the tires looked like they were there to stay. Then in the summer of 2022, Clayton and Kimberly received an email from Airbnb about a contest to build an original design for a getaway building, and it would be completely financed by Airbnb through their OMG Fund.
The email sparked the crazy idea to build a giant tire-shaped house using the tires Clayton and Kimberly were so desperate to get rid of. Their plan is to fill the tires with dirt so they become
like bricks, then stack the tires 10-21 feet high for walls, then incorporate some engineering and structure for the rest of the design of the building so it looks like a nice getaway house.
Now that they've got the money, building the house is the next step. Clayton and Kimberly recruited many friends and family members to pull the tires out of the woods and to the construction site.
They hope to have both interior and exterior construction complete by August 1, 2023.
