The bottle made to be brick
An idea from the 60's was to avoid pollution and provide cheaper building material. Project did not advance
After enjoying a beer (in moderation) at happy hour or having a cold one with friends on the weekend, nothing is more common than reusing the bottle as... brick! Yes, that's exactly what you read. If the idea of the Heineken brewery had worked, the bottles of the WOBO model would work as bricks to build a wall. And despite the recent advance in awareness about sustainability, the company's idea came in the 1960s, but it didn't take hold.
The idea, conceived by the then president of the brewery, Alfred Heineken, emerged during a visit he made to the Caribbean. There, Heineken observed beaches full of bottles and shortages of building materials in the region.
The architect John Habraken took the project off the ground and two WOBO models (acronym for World Bottle - Bottle World, in Portuguese) were launched: one 350 mm and the other 500 mm, in 1963. With a reasonable amount of bottles , it was possible to build a wall, as the models fit together and were very resistant, despite being made of glass. To make the fixation, just a little cement or spackle.
About 100,000 copies were released, but after not so good market reception, the company did not support the continuation of the project, which was suspended. In 1975, there was an attempt to put WOBOs back on the scene, but they effectively did not return.
Today, the only WOBO brick wall can be seen at the Heineken museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Despite being a museum thing, Mr. Heineken's idea is more current than ever!
