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Architect David Hertz has designed a home using all the pieces of a Boeing 747 to build it. This project is a 55 acre property in the remote hills of Malibu with several sites and unique topography with panoramic views looking out to a nearby mountain range, a valley, and the ocean with distant island views.The client, a woman, requested curvilinear/feminine shapes for the building. The wing of a 747, at over 2,500 sq. ft., became an ideal configuration to maximize the views and provide a self supporting roof with minimal additional structural support needed.
The wing structures are conceived to float on top of simple concrete, shot-crete, and rammed-earth walls that are cut into the hillsides. The floating roofs will derive simple support from steel brace frames, which will attach to strategic mounting points on the wing where the engines were previously mounted. Frameless, structural self-supporting glass will create the enclosure from the concrete slab on grade into the wing as roof.
In addition to the main residence an art studio and meditation room will be made from a section of the fuselage, a guest house will incorporate the first class mezzanine cabin and lounge, and a barn and other structures will use other parts of the plane.
As a structure and engineering achievement, the aircraft encloses a lot of space using the least amount of materials in a very resource efficient manner. The recycling of the 4.5 million parts of this “big aluminum can” is seen as an extreme example of sustainable reuse and appropriation. American consumers and industry throw away enough aluminum in a year to rebuild our entire airplane commercial fleet every three months.