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Showing posts with label architecture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label architecture. Show all posts

Friday, June 28, 2019

Heineken's Lost Plan To Build Houses Out Of Beer Bottles

The Heineken World Bottle was designed by architect John Habraken. When then-CEO Freddy Heineken was visiting the island of CuraƧao, he was bothered by the mass amounts of trash and the lack of housing. His solution? Make a beer bottle that could serve as a brick when it's finished. It was a brilliant compromise, but Heineken's marketing department rejected it as effeminate. There's a photo of a house built with these at the bottom of this post, along with photos showing in more detail how they fit together.

There are a handful of houses in the US built of beer bottles, although not the brick style bottles - here's "The House of a Thousand Headaches" in Hillsville, VA - unlike other bottle houses, the bottles point outward so that the inner walls are flush:



And a Tonopah, Nevada house built in 1902 made from ~10,000 bottles of J. Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters (which consisted of various herbs in a solution of 47% alcohol, so not beer, but in the same spirit):


Around 1905, Tom Kelly built this house in Rhyolite, Nevada, using 51,000 beer bottles masoned with adobe:


Building with empty vessels (including bottles) goes back a long way, of course, back at least to ancient Rome, where many structures used empty amphorae embedded in concrete. This was not done for aesthetic reasons, but to lighten the load of upper levels of structures and reduce concrete usage. It's more common to find a wall of bottles than an entire structure.

Here's a tutorial on making your own bottle bricks:



An additional tutorial is here, more on bottle walls here, and more on the Heineken bricks here and here.

Heineken bricks:

Monday, May 13, 2019

Monday links

May 12 was the birthday of Victorian poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti - here's a brief bio, some art and poetry, and a bit on his obsession with wombats.

Ancient Chinese Buildings Are Held Together With Sticky Rice.

This Plane Accidentally Flew Around the World - After Pearl Harbor, the crew of Pan Am flight 18602 was forced to do the impossible.

Five medieval toothpaste recipes, plus more medieval dental advice.

Why Do Cats—and So Many Other Animals—Look Like They’re Wearing Socks?


ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include a roundup of Mother's Day links, the 1970s flying Winnebago, an explanation of why we forget what we're doing when we enter a room, and, for Fred Astaire's birthday, clips of some of his best dancing.

Monday, October 22, 2018

1931 photo of NYC architects dressed up as their buildings

On January 13, 1931, the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects held a ball at the Hotel Astor in New York City.


In the picture above, we have from left to right: A. Stewart Walker as the Fuller Building (1929), Leonard Schultze as the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (1931) , Ely Jacques Kahn as the Squibb Building (1930), William Van Alen as the Chrysler Building (1930), Ralph Walker as 1 Wall Street (1931), D.E.Ward as the Metropolitan Tower and Joseph H. Freelander as the Museum of the City of New York (1930). 
This is cropped from the larger photo below.
There's also a short bit of video.









Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Tuesday links


Can you make a 10-year malt whisky in weeks? The chemistry says yes.


Some of the best newspaper corrections ever, including an excellent 2001 apology to Mark Steyn.

Frank Lloyd Wright had a plan to build a ‘city of the future’ on Ellis Island.


ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include Veterans Day history, a keg of ranch dressing, a gallery of 48 wild hamsters, and the 1968 memo to Gene Roddenberry re William Shatner's disappearing wigs from the Star Trek set.

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Thursday links

How to Kill Snakes and Fleas: advice from 1688.


These food photography tricks are kinda fascinating.

Inside the Cut-Throat World of Toddler Bike Racing.

Diet tip of the day: Drinking tequila can lead to weight loss. Among other things.

ICYMI, Tuesday's links are here, and include using a a charge card for a $170 million painting, pasta shape ranking, D-Day links, artificial skating rinks before reliable ice-making technology, and foolproof pick up lines (according to Chinese scientists).

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Thursday links

It's Vincent Van Gogh’s birthday - here are his rarely-seen sketchbooks and the unexpected math behind Starry Night.

Who Owns Your Face? Advertising companies, tech giants, data collectors, and the federal government, it turns out.


On March 30, 1848, Niagara Falls Ran Dry. Bonus: Niagara Falls sketch by Abbott & Costello and The Three Stooges.

Great Migrations: Following human genes around the world.

The United States v. Paramount and How Movie Theater Concessions Got So Expensive.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include how big land animals can get, where to hide from nuclear bombs, a collection of vintage celebrity endorsements, and the origin stories of famous sports.

Monday, March 27, 2017

Monday links

A Collection of Vintage Celebrity Endorsements.

Where to Hide If a Nuclear Bomb Goes Off In Your Area.


Two Infographics: Spring Cleaning Checklist and Best Ways to Die.



ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include the history of dentures, a set of uninspirational quotes, flying water taxis in Paris, and why barns are painted red.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Tuesday links

This 1938 Film Shows How Sound Effects Were Made for Old-Time Serial Radio Shows. (Note how the dress code has changed since then.)

Photos of the Skinniest House in the World  - it measures 5 feet at its widest point and 3 feet at its narrowest.

10 Incredible Tales Of Real Life Castaways.




ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include lots of April Fool's Day stuff: history, best and worst pranks and hoaxes, and tricks to play on your kids (and vice versa).

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Tuesday links


The Spite House, an Architectural Phenomenon Built on Rage and Revenge.

This 1953 Film Perfectly Explains How Mechanical Computers Worked Before We Had Microchips.



Meet the Last Generation of Typewriter Repairmen.

ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include Oregon Trail for Adults, a declassified CIA assassination manual from 1953, what it's like to live in the town where The Walking Dead is filmed, and cities in Russia what no one is allowed to go.