United Bottle Project, Zurich

Architects: Instant, Material: Plastic

The Zurich based architecture office INSTANT came up with an innovative method to recycle Plastic or PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) bottles. They designed a PET water bottle that can be designed to function as instant building material when filled with local soil and stacked to form temporary shelter.

United Bottle – the project’s working hypothesis is that future design should think beyond the product, and design the waste. The form of newly designed PET bottles can fit into regular boxes or on palettes used for water bottle distribution, and can be joined to build solid walls. ON demand, the bottles can be taken out of regular recycling circuits and redistributed – to be filled with found local materials and used as prefabricated building units to construct temporary structures or repair-damaged buildings.

The project where PET water bottles are used as prefabricated building units arrives in foiled six-packs on palettes at the local stores, and is collected and recycled with the help of bottle deposit system. United Bottle proposes a scenario based on the idea that newly designed PET bottles can be taken out of the regular circuits in case of crisis or specific demand m in order to be used as instant building material for temporary housing.

All information and images courtesy IA&B and the Designers. Credits and copyrights as duly mentioned.