This story is about building without borrowing, expressing with creativity & your own personal style - making spaces that let you slow down & developing your own lifestyle without being overwhelmed by worldly pressure.
“The following shared reflections come from having created 19 small buildings in recent years, all using industrial waste. I’ve built without borrowing, & now want to encourage & inspire you..“ Stevey Chernishov
Any able bodied person can construct small buildings. To do it you need tools, the ability to research & to connect well with other people, plus great advisors.
You don’t need to be fully cashed up, or backed by banks — just curious, capable, willing to learn & able to apply yourself. If you can work with your hands, network with others & think creatively, you can create small buildings that cost little. You don’t even need a nail gun.
Across the world, industries throw away more building materials than they can manage — lengths of timber, wall cladding, roofing, flashings, windows, plywood, fittings, doors & much more. These can be retrieved at building sites, or after house & commercial renovations.
Ask anyone in construction & they’ll tell you: usable materials go to waste every day. The capacity is massive, & the rewards great!
But this article also heeds warnings & some reflective thoughts on how to deal with bureaucracy; local government, legislation\building codes & resource management laws. You need to keep in mind that there are people in positions of oversight, control & with concern. Government employees don’t think the same as you, & neither do your neighbours.
Council building inspectors, quality control, compliance officers & managers all have an employment contract; instructions from their regional authority, health & safety policies, a long list of building codes, environmental laws & a huge amount of policy about the management of resources to consider. Frankly, there are far too many laws, they are always being adapted/amended & difficult to keep up with.
Government workers have revenue models guiding their work & a democratic system to live by. So, in short - if you are going to do any building work, best to consider the laws & oversight designated to deal with ‘the public’ before you end up having to face them retrospectively.
The best approach [speaking from experience on this]: Know their rules, don’t build too close to boundary lines, or roads, consider their height restricting guidelines; know what you can do without ‘consent’. In New Zealand for example, ‘Schedule 1 of the Building Act shows ‘exempt building work’. It outlines what kinds of construction can be done without needing a building consent. This includes a wide range of small-scale projects — like tiny buildings, sheds, greenhouses, sleepouts & certain renovations — provided they meet size, safety & location rules. WEB LINK:Building work that does not require a building consent (NZ)
Consider what your neighbours & community will say when you make a mess, noise, & build a functional sculptures in your yard. Express yourself, but plan ahead. These people will show up to your gate, with there clipboards at some point, followup letters, emails, & procedures — even when your buildings are compliant, beautifully made, structurally sound & safe..
SUGGESTIONS: Before getting any tools out, build a picture of your purpose in the world, & how building without borrowing; creating a building using industrial waste will give you autonomy & freedom you are after.
We should all be free to create in our own space, but you need to be ready to deal with anyone who doesn’t see eye to eye with you. The best way to do that is to know their rules, their way of seeing & to do what really matters without getting a headache from opposition. You can respond to them, but do so from an informed perspective, with the right communication, & treating them well even if they seem to be overarching. There is always a solution.
By learning to build with what others discard, you can create strong, beautiful, functional spaces — without going into debt. Waste materials become your resources. Creativity replaces big capital. It’s key to start off with a vision; know why you are building & presenting your ideas as you do. Count the cost — 30 years making mortgage payments, 50 hour work weeks, employee mindsets, overheads, etc.
You still need to build structurally sound buildings; & to have a budget. Shortcuts can lead to major inconveniences.
Set Your Vision & Roll It Out
To create small buildings using industrial waste, you have to think differently. Reuse isn’t a sign of lack — it’s a mark of vision. Rustic isn’t a compromise — it’s freedom & expression. Reclaimed materials can be ten times cheaper than new. You just need to be prepared to offer something to the person you are getting the resources from. Quality building materials are rarely free! But, when you use repurposed waste, your place will have it’s own unique feeling & look. Building using reclaimed materials can give you more independence than a space tied to a lease or loan.
Anyone can learn to work with discarded materials. It starts with observation & imagination — seeing potential where others see scrap. Hotel sites, high end residential development, building renovation sites, & online market places all have these available. You just need to plan for what you need, & search for it; being prepared to show up, share your vision, have something worth trading, & pickup..
These aren’t second-rate materials — they’re the building blocks of resilience.
Building Smart, Not Expensive
When you design from what’s already around you, you cut costs dramatically. You don’t wait for shipments or depend on inflated supply chains. You use what’s local, what’s available, what’s waiting to be reborn.
Timber offcuts become wall & floor panels. Glass fragments & tiles can be pieced into mosaics that no mass-produced product could match. Machinery parts can be reimagined into furniture or structural art. The result isn’t patchwork — it’s about seeing & doing with creativity.
The key is to see that:
A hotel off-cut is perfect for a 15 square metre build.
Windows from a 7 year old building go great in a new build.
You have more funds to buy insulation, pay the electrician, & get your site more properly established.
A Fresh Perspective on Wealth
The world’s waste is full of untapped value. Every time you repurpose building materials you save money — but the key is to not come at it from a poverty perspective. There is no moping, or feeling inadequate or sorry for yourself in this. It’s an empowering step forward; knowing you used what you have to create what you need; & that a well planned build might still be standing 30, 50 even 80 years on!
Every reused material is one less mined, one less manufactured, one less shipped across oceans. The structure you create will tell a story of freedom: of building without borrowing, of progress without debt.
Freedom
Communities grow stronger when they share skills & resources. People gain confidence & can more easily refocus time, & efforts. A workshop built from scraps can become the seed of a livelihood. A small home made from reclaimed materials can allow $30,000 of annual rent money to be reinvested in an enterprise.
Industrial waste doesn’t have to be the end of a thing. It’s can be the beginning of something better — a movement where resourcefulness replaces dependency, & where a home, studio or workshop doesn’t require a lifetime of debt.
Anyone can build. Anyone can save. Anyone can step into freedom — one small building at a time.
The Future Is Built Small — and Smart
The revolution in construction won’t come from mega-developers. It will come from makers, builders & communities who use what’s at hand to create spaces of dignity \ creativity \ connection.
Industrial waste is not the end a thing — it’s the beginning of something else. It’s the raw material for a new movement in design: one that values ingenuity over excess, cooperation over consumption & purpose over perfection.
“Small buildings remind us that greatness can rise from what the world once discarded. Forget about what other people think of you. Instead, realise what really matters & create it. Share your gifts with others.” Stevey Chernishov
INVITATION: If you want to learn more about this topic, feel free to share your thoughts in the Comments section below. It will be great to respond & open up a dialogue with you about this..
Rock and roll stevey