Here’s the most complete structure I’ve seen yet built from primarily 5 gallon buckets.

It’s called the “Ice Cream Igloo” because it’s made almost entirely out of old ice cream buckets. You can still read many of the flavors printed on the lids.

Every bucket is stuffed with sawdust, which is a cheap, although flammable, insulating material. You can see in the right-hand picture how the pails are fastened to one another with nails through the lids.

Eventually, the completed bucket igloo will be mashed over and plastered, making it much more pleasing to the eye.

The perfect domed shape was created by forming the buckets around an enormous satellite dish. You can see the naked dish providing watertight coverage below.

As more and more economic dropouts move into tent cities around the U.S, maybe we’ll see more creative housing solutions like this pop up.

If you’d like to find out more about the bucket igloo, step on over to Tiny House Swoon, where these images and story are from.

Update:

Watch our new Building with 5 Gallon Buckets video for more ideas like this.

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