Micro-dwellings are very small homes, sometimes built with salvage material, and are designed to have positive benefits on the environment. “MicroDwell” is an exhibition of owner built and inhabited micro-dwellings, and it will be on display through March 23 at the Shemer Art Center & Museum in Phoenix. We’ll take you on a video tour of the exhibit.
Ted Simons: In tonight's focus on sustainability, we take a video tour of a micro-dwelling exhibit. Micro-dwellings are very small homes that are often built with salvage material and are designed to have positive benefits on the environment. An exhibition of micro-dwellings is on display at the Shemer art center and museum in Phoenix. Videographer Juan Magana recently visited the exhibit.
"The Shemer art center is presenting an exhibit of micro-dwellings. Each builder is creative. It's all do-it-yourself products. The way the builders approached this exhibit was with the guideline of having to create something that was square feet or less. Many of these builders have used recycled or repurposed materials. Many of them have also used found objects. As you can see, we talked about found objects. This steam shovel has been repurposed and is now a pizza oven. Every weekend, he is offering pizza on site that has been baked in the oven of the bay city steam shovel. This building was designed by Dan Dwyer. And it is all out of Styrofoam. Most of them will be taking down and then transporting to another location where they will then hook up Plumbing and electricity and that kind of thing. But, yes, some of these buildings are designed so that you could actually live off the grid, so to speak, and live more simply. This dwelling actually is called the beetle box. It pays homage to a mid-century architect who lived and worked here in Phoenix. I think most of the dwellings have been done for very personal reasons. A lot of them you will see are studio spaces. So, or an outdoor space like the beetle box to extend, you know, the indoor living, urban living to be more outdoors and that kind of thing. This dwelling was actually built as a studio for a landscape architect. The design that is so unique about this it is all meant to be indoors outdoors. This is an exhibit of what can be done in order to sort of live off the grid."
The collected micro-dwellings will be on display through March 23rd. For more information, check out Shemerartscenter.org. Tomorrow, our weekly look at state politics with the "Arizona Capitol Times" and we talk with Congressman Gosar about the issues on Capitol Hill. That is all of the time we have right now. Thank you for joining us. You have a great evening.
