Heineken Beer Bottle Bricks
July 10th, 2006
Along the lines of our Book Bar, this 1950s design for stackable beer bottles was the brainchild of Alfred Heineken, of beer fame.
As the story goes, Heineken was strolling along by the sea in Jamaica, and was shocked at the number of beer bottles littering the beach. He was also concerned with the lack of cheap building materials, and at the resulting living conditions for the poor. Putting two and two together, he envisioned a “World Bottle” which would be imported for drinking but kept for construction.
A 10’ x 10’ shack would take approximately 1000 bottles to build, but the Jamaican tourist industry would likely supply plenty. In addition, glass (and air) are good insulators, though the humid and hot Jamaican climate may not require insulation per se. A unique feature was that the short bottle neck would fit into a depression in the bottom of each bottle. Ultimately though, the idea was either (according to different accounts) voted down by the Heineken board, or vetoed by the bottle companies and the customers. Not much information is available on the World Bottle today, but there have been other attempts to make interlocking “bottle bricks”, even of plastic.
Link to an article on Heineken (the man, not the beer) at the BBC website.
Related Posts: Lima Slums, Book Bar
July 10th, 2006 at 9:25 am
bloody brilliant by gum!
July 10th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Also see our experiments on making plastic bottle bricks: Link
July 10th, 2006 at 10:19 am
Square bottles would make them easier to stack in your refrigerator!
July 10th, 2006 at 11:36 am
[...] Link [...]
July 10th, 2006 at 11:41 am
I’m not a huge drinker of Heineken, but I’ll have one occasionally. If their beer came in these bottles, I’d drink it WAY more often.
July 10th, 2006 at 11:46 am
[...] Â Read about it. [...]
July 10th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
“People who live in glass houses shouldn’t drink Heineken.”
July 10th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Wow. Some smart company needs to do this. Imagine how much money a little beer could make with this gimmick while helping a good cause. I can see hipsters lining up to buy square beer right now. It’s like drinking a Toyota Prius.
July 10th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
Agreed, Brett.
July 10th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
You know, i read about this in a book from the late 70s or early 80s called Garbage Houses. It was all about deigning post consumer waste to function as components in 3rd world housing.
There is a chapter on the Heineken bottle with photos of the test house constructed from them. The bottles were also referred to as WOBO for world bottle. i have had the darndest time finding anymore about it on the web though.
July 10th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
I could swear that I recently saw an advertisement for a premium Heineken in square bottles. Could it be possible that they are bringing it back?
July 10th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Where did you see that advertisement? Has anyone else seen it?
July 10th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
That is totally awesome!
July 10th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
I am told that a small shack made of these bottles stand on grounds of Heinneken HQ.
July 10th, 2006 at 8:16 pm
I think I saw it in a magazine.
I will poke around a bit and see what I can find.
July 10th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
No luck yet, but I’m sure I saw it. It is possible that it was for another beer in a green bottle (Rolling Rock? Becks?) I have “a friend in the business” who will know. I will ask him tomorrow and post a comment here.
July 10th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
I found this blog with a bit more information on the issue. Keep looking guys.
July 11th, 2006 at 12:42 am
[...] Vestal Design Blog » Blog Archive » Heineken Beer Bottle Bricks Des bouteilles de bière transformables en matérieau de construction (tags: design architecture) [...]
July 11th, 2006 at 4:40 am
I like the idea of trash houses or houses out of cheap or unused product. Look at what Auburn does with its studio houses.
Suggestion. Rather than blow the plastic, how about shredding the plastic and soda bottles and beer cans and trash mashing them into a block. There is a lot more trash that needs re-using.
July 11th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
[...] According to an item on Vestal Design’s blog, Alfred Heineken, who is credited with making Heineken beer an international brand, had a unique, if somewhat bizarre, idea to make square beer bottles that could be fitted together and stacked to build houses after people finished drinking them. It was mentioned briefly in his BBC News obituary, but with few details (Heineken passed away in 2002). According to Vestal Design’s account, Alfie was wandering the beach in Jamaica and was struck by the large number of beer bottles littering the beach. He was also apparently “concerned with the lack of cheap building materials, and at the resulting living conditions for the poor.” In one of those same leaping kind of moments that produced Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (you’ve got chocolate in my peanut butter!) he put two and two together and got five. Voila, the square beer bottle was born. Or it would have been, except that Heineken’s board of directors didn’t share his vision. He thought square Heineken bottles would be imported around the world and then they’d stay there and be used to build houses. They thought he was nuts, or at least the idea was. [...]
July 12th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Heineken Beer Bottle Bricks…
As the story goes, Alfred Heineken was strolling along by the sea in Jamaica, and was shocked at the number of beer bottles littering the beach. He was also concerned with the lack of cheap building materials, and at the resulting living conditions for…
July 15th, 2006 at 8:10 am
‘Been there, done that!’
During Easter vacation in 1950, I went on a field trip arranged by the College (now University) of the Pacific, Stockton, California, to Death Valley. One of the spectacular man-made structures we saw was the Bottle House in Rhyolite, Nevada, a ghost town just outside Death Valley National Monument. The Bottle House was a ruin then but may have been restored by now.
Rhyolite had been a small city of 12,000 persons, mostly miners, and it had an opera house, among other cultural amenities. In 1906, Tom T. Kelly built a house from 50,000 beer and liquor bottles. The town failed shortly thereafter but Paramont Pictures restored the house in 1925, no doubt as a film location. Twenty-five years later, I remember seeing walls of bottle glass similar to glass windows in old European towns, like Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria, Germany. This crude method of making glass was widespread during the Middle Ages and lingers today when we describe someone wearing ‘coke bottle glasses.’ The predominent color of the Rhyolite house was green and with some brown and clear. While I don’t remember exactly, it’s likely that Simon Rodia also used glass bottles in the 33 years building his Watts Towers in Los Angeles.
The bottles were, of course, round and used like bricks being held together by a kind of motar-cement. If they had been rectangular with dimples, they would have been more sturdy. By 1950, the walls had been broken and trashed. I hope that the nearby Beatty Chamber of Commerce has has put it back into good condition.
For more information, trya web search on the town name and on Death Valley National Monument.
Jery Kilker
July 16th, 2006 at 6:08 am
Wonder what would happen if one filled the bottles with dirt prior to building with them. An improvement? It’d would make the house darker.
July 20th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
Heineken World Bottles…
These are very cool:
As the story goes, Heineken was strolling along by the sea in Jamaica, and was shocked at the number of beer bottles littering the beach. He was also concerned with the lack of cheap building materials, and at the resulting livin…
July 24th, 2006 at 8:29 pm
I remember reading about this in a book about repurposing materials for furniture called “low tech” when I was but a child. It was just in the introduction, but I recall drawings of the initial prototype as well. It was rounded, almost like a figure 8 at the base. Nice to see a real picture of the bottles instead of just a line drawing.
July 25th, 2006 at 9:23 am
[...] It was with some interest that we noticed the following item: Heineken Beer Bottle Bricks. [...]
July 26th, 2006 at 12:16 am
[...] Link [...]
August 19th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
Someone in Argentina has tried to do the same thing with interlocking plastic bottles.
August 19th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
Sorry, here’s the link:
http://triptronix.net/ishbadiddle/archives/2006/01/11/15.56.22/
August 22nd, 2006 at 12:33 pm
hey there…. im a final year architecture student, currently doing my thesis on ‘possibilities of using recycled materials for architectural building materials’
yeah… ive came across heineken’s WOBO.. pretty cool huh? its a crying shame it didnt workout.
Btw, the bottle shack is in the grounds of his Noordwijk villa. but it is kinda hot in the inside during daytime.
could anyone help me out to point out or share any info????
August 26th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
[...] Vestal Design – a lesser known product design shop… Vestal Design – a lesser known product design shop. They also have a Vestal Design blog. [...]
March 10th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
id love to see heineken bring these bottles back
March 22nd, 2007 at 6:55 am
COol
March 28th, 2007 at 2:50 am
Nice..nice post.
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Now this is a good idea, and just think of the fun you could have drinking the beer as you build the structure. That is my kind of do it yourself project. Some one should try to get the ball rolling on this idea again.
August 6th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
This is one of the most inspirational products (and articles for that matter)! I’ve sent Heineken an email about this, asking more about it. If they can’t produce this, someone else should. Glass recycling could use some help.
October 1st, 2007 at 12:46 am
I think it’s more practical that round bottles, as someone already commented that it would be easier to stack block style bottles in the fridge, and then being able to use them as building blocks.
Just an amazing idea!
November 30th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
interesting
January 1st, 2008 at 2:24 am
[...] those with long memories might remember that the Dutch brewing company voted against the reusable Brick Bottle back in the 1950s. Of course, that was before the environment became a marketing [...]
January 26th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Cool!
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:04 pm
If they built a house from them, then Lloyd Grossman 0f ‘Through the Keyhole’ could use his great catchphrase;
“Now who lives in a house like this…”
October 24th, 2008 at 12:20 am
This is awesome, I hope that someone utilizes the pure creative use of this design. How about milk, juice, and other liquids?
December 15th, 2009 at 12:37 am
What an interesting idea, I wonder how many people used them in construction. Can you imagine someone building a shelter out of these bottles? They do seem to stack nicely, however.
April 14th, 2010 at 1:30 am
Glass Products, Glass Mug, Glass Cups, Glass Bottles
April 14th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
[...] via: Treehugger, Abitare, Vestal Design, Dornob, Gajitz, Home Dosh, Shiny Shiny TV, Ponoko, EcoFriend, Project Koreck, Modern DNA)There are [...]
April 18th, 2010 at 6:16 am
[...] via: Treehugger, Abitare, Vestal Design, Dornob, Gajitz, Home Dosh, Shiny Shiny TV, Ponoko, EcoFriend, Project Koreck, Modern [...]
April 30th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
[...] via: Neatorama, Sustainable Is Good, Treehugger, Best In Packaging, Recygal, Vestal Design, Gajitz, Gear [...]
December 17th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
[...] castaway beer bottles. He was troubled, too, by the appalling living conditions among the locals. Vestial Design has the whole story on this decidedly green [...]