Alabama students built homes from discarded Carpet
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In 2002, architecture students from Auburn University in Alabama began building with an unusual material: used carpet tiles.
Working through a program called Rural Studio, the students partnered with Interface, a carpet tile manufacturer, to find a use for discarded materials. They stacked 72,000 tiles to construct the walls of a house for the Harris family in Mason’s Bend, Alabama, using compression and a wooden beam to hold the tiles in place.
The Lucy Carpet House project originated from a desire to combine practical building with educational opportunities. Rural Studio was founded to allow students to gain hands-on experience while addressing housing and infrastructure needs in the Black Belt region of Alabama, a historically underserved rural area. The program ensured the tiles had been stored for seven years to eliminate any remaining gases before construction.
Over the past three decades, Rural Studio has expanded beyond the initial carpet house to complete over 220 projects and educate more than 1,200 students. Each year, approximately 40 students live and work in the Black Belt, designing and building not only homes but also civic buildings, community spaces, and systems for clean water access. The program emphasizes asking what should be built, rather than simply what can be built, turning waste into useful structures.
