After a long flight, most people can’t wait to get out of the aircraft. But on a remote 55-acre site in the Santa ­Monica Mountains, California’s Francie Rehwald intends to live in one. David Hertz, the architect designing her new home, is using all the pieces of a Boeing 747 to build it.

This dazzling scheme is one of the most dramatic examples of a residence built with recycled materials. But there are many others around the world, created by owners and architects who have two goals: to conserve resources by using products at the end of their lives rather than manufacturing new ones and to showcase the rich textures, colours and other aesthetic attractions of materials reconstituted into siding, flooring, countertops and walls.