Yancey Tire Chapel
Rural Studio
Entered through an old dairy farm, the privately owned Yancey Chapel is set into the side of a bluff. The definitive walls are built of 900 tires packed and tamped with dirt, tied together with rebar, and stuccoed. The heart pine roof beams were salvaged from an old house.
1995 Thesis Project - Ruard Veltman, Thomas Tretheway, and Steven Durden
Sawyerville, Alabama, USA
Yancy Chapel, located on Morrison Farm in Hale County, Alabama, is a thesis project designed and built by architecture students Ruard Veltman, Thomas Tretheway, and Steven Durden. Concerned with being environmentally friendly and cost-efficient, the students decided to build the walls of the chapel out of recycled tires. The tires were filled with dirt excavated from the site, packed down, and then stuccoed over. A nearby tire dealer donated the tires to the project. The roof is covered with tin, with the roof beams salvaged from a barn. Rock, which constitutes the floor of the chapel, was taken from a nearby riverbed. The chapel is set into the side of a scenic overlook, and blends beautifully with the surrounding woods.
