[Greenbuilding] Beer bottles as modular building materials (was re: Block Wall Insulation)

[Chris Green]

The Glass House at Boswell, near Creston in the East Kootenays, was 
built by retired undertaker David H. Brown in 1952, from embalming fluid 
bottles, which are square.  
Mr. Brown had a lot of connections in that business and when he decided 
to build the house he had the other undertakers send him their empty 
bottles.
He ended up using approximately 500,000 bottles.
In addition to the house there is at least one arched bridge and a 
number of other garden constructions, fences, and so-on. The house is 
still a private home, but is open for tours in the summer season, and 
has a gift shop.

http://www.kootenayrockies.com/attractions/glasshouse.html

http://www.sweetapple.bc.ca/images/glass_house.jpg

Three more photos here:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/vt/s/?m=6&l.q=de63e 
<http://members.virtualtourist.com/vt/s/?m=6&l.q=de63e>

Artist Michael Kluckner's website has a postcards from 1960 showing the 
house:
http://www.michaelkluckner.com/bciw4glasshouse.html

The RoadsideAmerica.com listing for this house states there are also a 
few embalming fluid bottle houses in the US.

There have been other bottle house built in B.C., but these have been 
destroyed. One was at Duncan, on Vancouver Island, built up from round 
bottles (lots of 7-up bottles, I recall ) and was demolished a few years 
back when they widened the highway.

Another site in the south Okanogan valley consisted of three or four 
buildings and other structures built from bottles and other things by an 
industrious immigrant, Gottfried Gabriel.
> "Junk. All of it junk," said Mr. Lehman. "He work like crazy. Work, 
> work, work. Then he drop dead." We both stared at the postcard. "But 
> you know," added Mr. Lehman, "there were always people coming to see 
> him. And I think the bastard was happy. So who's crazy?"
http://www.galleries.bc.ca/agso/sites1.html


Cheers,

Chris Green.