Often when architecture is made out of re-used materials—things like milk cartons, Heineken bottles, and wine bottles—structures wear their recycled garb proudly, so there's no doubt that the material of choice was scavenged materials. Not so with the houses built by Ingrid Vaca Diez, the lawyer-turned-builder who uses tens of thousands of soda bottles to construct homes for those who need them: the only indication that her projects are made of stacked plastic bottles are the knobby tops and star-flower bottoms of the building materials, embossed like an abstract wall treatment on the home's walls. She's completed 10 homes so far, including at least six in Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and one in Argentina. After the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Vaca Diez was flown in to help.
So how many bottles does it take? According to BBC Mundo, a 1,829-square-foot house would take something like 36,000 bottles, each filled with sand or discarded materials. The bottles are then stacked and she coats each wall with whatever's on hand, be it "expired powder milk, horse manure, linseed oil, cattle blood, cane molasses... whatever," she says. More below.
Here, the floors are made from cut-up tires. Once the bottles are filled, the house can be ready in just 15 days, according to Treehugger.
· Lawyer Turned Architect Builds Recycled Homes for People in Need, Will Travel to Haiti [Treehugger via PSFK]
· Ecological house and also ... Cheap! [BBC Mundo]
· All Adaptive Reuse posts [Curbed National]