This 624-square-foot bungalow utilizes quite an innovative construction process: it's put together with sand-filled plastic bottles, each one capped and weighing about two pounds.
This project is a partnership between the NGO Development Association for Renewable Energies (DARE) and foreign experts from Africa Community Trust, a London-based NGO. Filled plastic bottles of sand are stacked into layers and bonded together by mud and cement, and held together by a network of strings to provide extra support to the structure.
The structure is fire proof, bullet proof, earthquake resistant, and highly insulated. The builders claim the sand-filled bottles are stronger than ordinary cinder blocks. This home requires an approximate 14,000 bottles, a small number compared to an estimated 160 million disposed of each year by the country of Nigeria.
Read More: Africa's First Plastic Bottle House RIses in Nigeria
(Images: Inhabitat)
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Just... WOW. I'm so impressed with such a ingenious recycling project to build stable homes. This is amazing.
It's cute, but:
- the plastic isn't made to be UV resistant. How long will it last in the sun?
- all it would take to destroy the structure is a few exacto knives cutting into plastic bottles at eye-level, and pouring out the sand. The bottles would be hard to replace.
Seems to me that another layer of plastering on both sides would solve the problem.
And if the person making the home couldn't afford windows, they could use some of those soda bottles for the solar-water-bulbs as well!
Pretty neat way to use things we're just throwing away.