Mirror
An eccentric artist who never lets anything go to waste has spent 40 years building his own house from recycled materials.
Self-titled hippy Richard Delbridge, 69, bought a piece of land in the countryside in Olahoma several decades ago.
Inspired by native American houses and earthships in the US state of New Mexico, Richard got to work on building his own home using primarily recycled materials.
“I spent the whole first summer digging with a shovel and collecting thousands of aluminium cans and bricks,” Richard told The Mirror.
“I did an original sketch of the underground part of the house with a level dining room and a second floor bedroom.”
For a few years, the house matched the sketch. But as time went on, Richard added a bathroom, a second bedroom, a greenhouse, and a third floor with a fireman’s pole running through the entire house.
While his vision for the house grew, Richard was constantly on the hunt for materials he could build with.
“Back in the late 1970s the university students would move in and out of town and they’d leave loads of cool stuff behind.
“I’d drive over with a pickup truck and get loads of things. Then I’d work with what I had.”
