Monday, March 12, 2007

A lush home...

...or should that be "a home for a lush?"

Dig this story:

A house in Western Australia's south-west is being built entirely from recycled wine bottles.

Around 13,500 wine bottles will be used in the walls of the house, which owner Peter Little says will save energy.

He says by filling the bottles with water, the entire building will be insulated.


The basic idea is nothing new. I've seen a few houses made out of bottles -- some built as novelties, some because bottles were plentiful where the houses were built -- but the notion of filling them with water is a fresh twist to the problem of insulation.

Here's a postcard image of a bottle house in Tonapah, Nevada...



Of course course there are places where this might be impractical. A hard winter could shatter the walls if you tried this in a frigid, inhospitable place such as, say, Idaho. I'd use antifreeze as a filler in that case.

And it doesn't strike me as terribly practical in places where earthquakes are likely. A house that can twist apart is bad enough; having your abode shatter around you would be traumatic, to say the least.

Still, this sounds like a good idea. I'm all for using recycled materials wherever possible; people have built successfully using haybales and adobe, old tires and and many other strange and unlikely raw materials.

I remember being inside a bottle house on a bright, sunny day. The light was beautiful.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've only seen these in pics or on HGTV...very cool though huh?

Lou.

Anonymous said...

AWESOME. I wouldn't mind a "bottle-house". That would be quite neat!

And i'm envious that you have been inside one!!

Ya shoulda taken PICTURES!!!
:-(

Hope you have an easy and peaceful Monday,

Hugs and alooooha!

MrScribbler said...

kf -- I was all of maybe six or seven when I got to see the inside of a bottle house. It was too dark for my cheap box camera to get a picture.

I need to go find one now.

Anonymous said...

How cool. What will they think of next?

Anonymous said...

Good luck getting that past the building inspectors. (They have no sense of humor at all.)

becomingkate said...

That's cool! It wouldn't withstand an Albertan winter, but in BC it'd be fine. I'd love to see how the light plays inside.
(btw - it's great that my blogger display name is back - thanks!)

John0 Juanderlust said...

It's great when people do anything to break the mold and take a chance like that. I like the idea of using recyclked materials as well. I'm thinking of building a cottage out of has-beens. Or old cuban coffee cans. Maybe tired shoes...
Very few people can say they've been inside a bottle house, let alone seen one close up. Cool.

Anonymous said...

My son Ryan has all kinds of ideas about a home for himself, container homes, I forget what there... hell have to see this!

Anonymous said...

Let me know when you find one & post the pics - coz i don't want to miss it. :-)

Hugz and aloooha!