Big Dig House by Single Speed Design in Lexington, USA

Project: Big Dig House
Architects: Single Speed Design
Location: Lexington, Massachusetts, United States
Area: 3,799 sq ft
Photos: Provided by Single Speed Design

Big Dig House by Single Speed Design

Single Speed Design completed the Big Dig House project next to the actual Big Dig—the most expensive road project in U.S. history. The house is located in Lexington, Massachusetts and provides nearly 4,000 square feet of living space for its inhabitants.

The Big Dig is the most expensive road project in U.S. history. The project involved moving the Central Artery into a tunnel under downtown Boston, requiring enormous engineering efforts due to underground subways, pipes and utility lines that had to be replaced or relocated. Tunnel workers encountered numerous unexpected geological and archaeological obstacles, including glacial deposits, foundations of buried houses, and several sunken ships found in land reclaimed from water.

The Big Dig House by Single Speed Design uses materials obtained from the Big Dig project. In this respect, it represents an outstanding example of architectural recycling. The architects' description of the project follows.

As a prototype building demonstrating how infrastructure waste can be saved and reused, the structural system of this 3,400 square foot home consists of steel and concrete from Boston's Big Dig, with over 600,000 pounds of salvaged materials from formerly demolished I-93 highway components reused. The material reassembly planning is similar to a prefabricated element system, resulting in delicate spatial compositions made from large road components.

These same components are capable of withstanding much greater loads compared to standard building materials, thus allowing easy integration of large garden roofs. Most importantly, the project demonstrates untapped potential in public space: with strategic planning before work begins, necessary community programs such as schools, libraries and housing can be constructed anytime infrastructure is dismantled, saving valuable resources, embedded energy and taxpayer money.

–Single Speed Design