Gennaro Brooks-Church is a designer and contractor living in Carroll Gardens. He’s built a treehouse in the backyard of his two-story brownstone completely out of recycled materials from the trash and now he wants to rent it on Airbnb.
“I think people would enjoy it, the experience of coming to Brooklyn and staying in a tree. But I’m pretty mindful of staying within the law. I don’t have any desire to buck the system,” he tells DNAinfo. Considering the controversy surrounding Airbnb in New York, he can probably expect at least some trouble from the neighbors.
It comes as no surprise that Brooks-Church would want to get in on the sharing economy, since using materials and space creatively is his job. He’s the founder of Eco Brooklyn, a contracting service that builds with discarded and found materials. His brownstone acts as a showroom for the company because he built it from recycled items.
“The main thing I’m so proud of … is that all this beautiful stuff is from a dumpster,” Brooks-Church says. The wood for the treehouse comes from a water tower that was dismantled and the floors and windows are made of glass that an advertising agency threw away.
Whether or not he goes through with the Airbnb, Brooks-Church says his kids love it, and that’s all that matters.
(Photo: Eco Brooklyn)
