Dan Phillips
Dan Phillips
Dan Phillips is an American designer and builder from Texas. He is the founder and face of Phoenix Commotion, a construction company established in 1997. Phoenix Commotion focuses on designing Eco-friendly homes for low-income individuals and families such as struggling artists and single mothers. The company’s goals include reducing landfill burdens through the use of excess and recyclable materials; providing low-income housing through selection of cheap materials and labor; and allowing opportunities for the unemployed by training unskilled workers...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDesigner
CountryUnited States of America
People learn from each other, ... You hear students all the time comparing their experiences in India, Amsterdam and Spain . It opens people's eyes to the world and fosters conversation and dialogue.
Building codes are a good thing. People who throw rocks at inspectors are being naive. It's a lot like police officers; we want them around unless they stop us for a ticket. It's the same with inspectors.
People have been doing this for hundreds of thousands of years: using whatever is available to build shelter. If you ponder what could be used, then building materials are everywhere.
If you have multiples of anything, you have the possibility of repetition. Repetition creates pattern and also unity. Put anyone in a room with a pile of similar objects and say, 'I want a pattern by 3 P.M. or no dinner.' Anyone would come up with a design. It is easy, fun and available to anybody. Most people just don't have the nerve.
We're going to do some things to help with that.
I was kind of joking around with it. I was saying, 'We should be intense runners and shave our legs.' We thought it would be funny. I was the first one to take a swipe.
We just love baseball. We cheer when the other team makes a great play. We don't care. In St. Louis, it's all about baseball. And when it's over for the year, now that's something to be sad about.
Always do what is best for the kids in our program.
Today, Retail Link is a little bit difficult to navigate.
For centuries, building materials were free. You want to build a house, you cut down some trees. But we haven't been thinking about the cost to the planet.
Look at kids playing with blocks. I think it's in everyone's DNA to want to be a builder.
I was a dancer of no repute. But dance taught me a lot. You walk into a dance studio knowing you have to walk out with a dance. You improvise.
I decided to set out to prove that you could make a reasonable living building for the poor using recycled materials and only hiring unskilled labor.
Where do you get lumpy tiles? Well, of course, you don't. But I get a lot of toilets, and so you just dispatch a toilet with a hammer, and then you have lumpy tiles.