Friday, February 5, 2010

Building a home from garbage

If home is where the heart is, then my garbage-loving heart is racing with joy over this amazing design construction by the Alfredo Santa Cruz family in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina.



The Casa De Botellas and every piece of furniture inside is built entirely from trashed, non-recyclable plastic containers. The walls are made from 1200 PET plastic bottles, supporting a 1300 piece Tetra Pack roof, holding 140 piece CD jewel case doors and windows, surrounding 120 PET plastic bottle couches, and 200 PET plastic bottles beds to sleep on. Some bottles are even filled with soil or sand, to help contain a fire outbreak.



This is an inspiring project that really demonstrates the power of garbage upcycling and creative thinking, highlighting the previous history of the material and confronting consumption head on - then using design to re-create our future and change the culture of cyclical production/waste.

Home is in the details - it's the creative design touch that really makes this garbage house come to life

2 comments:

Cindi said...

This is awesome! I love how the home is filled with light.

Unknown said...

That's a great point Cindi, a wonderful quality of the plastic bottles! Plastic bottles also last much longer than cement, so even though they have a thin, see-through aesthetic they are actually very durable as a building material.