Naturally, 2013 is off to a decidedly nontraditional start over at faircompanies where the latest video tour is of a project by Dan Phillips of Huntsville, Texas-based green building company, Phoenix Commotion. Having been previously featured in the New York Times and attained TED talk-dom, Phillips is renowned for constructing affordable housing for creatives and low-income individuals using primarily reclaimed and local materials, materials that, as faircompanies points out “go far beyond scrap wood:” bottle tops, wine corks, license plates, shattered mirrors, DVDs, and the list goes on.

For one of Phillips’ more intriguing projects in Huntsville, cattle bones have been repurposed as a primary building material and decor element, showing up in the countertops, door handles, floor tiles, and patio furniture. Built as a communal residence for artists, the three-bedroom, three-bathroom Bone House is no doubt a touch macabre — very Marfa meets the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” by way of the Mütter Museum and the nonstop meowing of an unseen cat in the video doesn’t make it any less unsettling  — but also an eye-popping feat of salvage-based craftmanship. The cattle bones themselves are locally, emm, produced at nearby ranches.

Read the entire article via Watch: Cattle bones reborn as decor at funky Texas artists’ residence | MNN – Mother Nature Network.