Next In Sustainable Living: Beer Bottle Houses

As people move to more sustainable ways of living, some innovative architects have begun using recycled materials to create more environmentally-friendly habitats. Incredibly, beer bottles have become a primary means of this style of building, with far-ranging benefits including cheap construction, recycling and up-cycling, pollution reduction, natural solar power lighting, and natural insulation. The environment will definitely thank these clever builders for these eco-friendly beer buildings:

Buddhist Temple in Khun Han, Thailand

Though drinking is considered a sin in Buddhism, 1.5 million green Heineken and brown Chang beer bottles went into the construction of the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple. Located in the city of Khun Han, in north-east Thailand, the complex has been decades in the making. Enlisting the help of local authorities and residents, monks started collecting bottles in 1984. From the recyclables they have created the 20-building complex featuring the temple, houses, restrooms, crematorium, and also mosaics from discarded bottle tops.

The complex works as an eco-friendly, recycling initiative, functional building (the bottles don’t fade and are easy to clean), and – through the play of light on glass and the amount of elbow grease invested – a reflection of a cleansed mind and the discipline of Buddhism. The initiative has also helped clean up local pollution, and monks intend to expand further with every bottle they can collect.

The House Made Of 6 Million Beer Bottles

Topping even the Buddhist temple is one man, Tito Ingenieri’s, 19-year-in-the-making, 6 million bottles-of-beer-on-the wall house in Buenos Aires. He collected the motley assortment of bottles from neighbours and the street, and, after one hopes a thorough cleaning, stacked the bottles to create the foundations/walls of his house. Apart from being extremely environmentally-friendly, aesthetically pleasing and an inspirational culmination of hard work, the house is also musical! True to form, the bottle necks whistle when the wind passes through.