This video is largely a critique of Western consumerism and the idea that everything needs to be perfect for us to feel peaceful. Dan Phillips shows that the houses he builds are artistic, quaint, and even attractive even though they’re made from unconventional materials and imperfect conventional ones.
He also states that we put our vanity over our necessities, feeling that things need to fit a standard others have created in order to feel complete. Therefore it’s also a sort of ode to individualism, aside from being about thrift and getting back to real basics.

I definitely felt inspired and I agree with his views. In fact, I’ve often suggested to close friends that we don’t buy into the housing market, but instead find a lot and build our own homes. There are posts of houses built out of those huge storage bins they use on ships, as well as other gigantic things that are simply thrown into landfills later on. He argues that our nature isn’t to be pretty, but to be comfortable, so why should we put on a mask of perfection every time and try to fit into an image that’s harmful to us (high mortgages) and to the environment?

Definitely makes me want to build things.