Artist Gregory Kloehn Creates Dumpster House

Finally! Affordable housing in the bay area!

Living in the San Francisco Bay area ain’t cheap. If you do manage to find a place, it’s probably going to be extremely small. Well, we bet it’s still bigger than the dumpster house that local artist Gregory Kloehn has created.

Ripleys tipped us off to this story about Kloehn’s radical idea – explore the very definition of home by taking your everyday dumpster and putting items inside it that you would expect to find in a typical house. This includes a gas grill, an electrical system, a 6 gallon water storage system, windows, a toaster, hardwood floors, and granite countertops.

As Kloehn says “I think I made a nice little home… out of a garbage can.” His dumpster house was on display this month at the SF Fringe Festival.

Maybe one day, telling people that you “live in a dumpster” might not have the stigma it has today.

The dumpster house brings to mind the recent small house movement. For example, Gregory Paul Johnson is a co-founder of the Small House Society. He also lives in a 140 square foot cottage set on a trailer, that he built in 2003. The movement came about from concerns about the environment as well as the pleasures of simple living. But we figure it has also gained popularity since the housing crisis. People can no longer afford 2,000 square foot 4/2 homes like they used to.

While the dumpster house is fascinating, we hold out hope that future real estate will offer something with a little bit more room than that!

Location, Location, Location