Plastic bottle house (in Serbia with pictures)

ananova ^ | September 2007

[joan]

A Serbian maths professor has celebrated his retirement by moving into a house he built himself entirely out of plastic bottles.

It took five years and 13,500 bottles for Tomislav Radovanovic, from the central town of Kragujevac, to build the 60sq metre house.

He told the national news agency Tanjug that he hopes to enter the Guinness Book of Records and has already sent them an application.

Only the foundation of the property is concrete, and all other parts of the house are made of plastic bottles that he had been collecting for years.

Even the kitchen furniture and windows are made of plastic bottles.

Radovanovic said his former students had helped him build the property by collecting the bottles he needed.

[joan]

[joan]

He doesn't really live in it, it is just a novelty house: "The house is comfortable and it practically cost me nothing," Radovanovic said, noting that the bottles make good heat insulators. He acknowledged that he would be spending little time in the building, but explained: "In case of an earthquake, I would prefer being in this house than in a brick residence."

[2banana]

Only the foundation of the property is concrete

WTF? I can see brick/cement pillars and roof...

[bmwcyle]

Heavens to recycling! Make it all mixers and the party never ends.

[N. Theknow]

He should build a chimney out of bottle tops....just to cap it off.

[ROLF of the HILL COUNTRY]

“Only the foundation of the property is concrete”

And the pillars, and the roof... Don’t you hate it when journalists are so ignorant they can’t identify things in their own supporting photos?!
Otherwise, a cool house. I don’t think I’d want it next to mine though.

[Notary Sojac]

If the women don’t find you handsome, they might as well find you handy.

[joan]

Me too, but I guess that would make it safer in a fire (if someone really did live in it). Before the pictures I was thinking a fire would turn the house into a mountain of molten plastic which would cover the inhabitants, but with the mortar and concrete, one can see it is mainly built in large window-like panels of plastic bottles all around. But wouldn't plastic also release more poisons if it burned than a typical home?

[grjr21]

“No, no, I won’t live in that, not by the hair on my chinny chin chin.”

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

The bottle infill for the railings is especially ugly, but I appreciate the concept.

Wonder if he has bricks in his refrigerator?

[lmailbvmbipfwedu]

I’m a man
But, I can change
If I have to
I guess.........

[evets]

Beer can house in Houston Tx

[AlexW]

Here in Central Europe PET bottles are very prominent.
While the public water is fine, most people buy mineral water which comes in the PET bottles.
I go through at least one a day.
Of course there are also the soft drinks and even the daily bulk wine that I buy is put into PET bottles.

[Philistone]

People who live in plastic bottle houses shouldn’t throw parties...

[joan]

The beer can house builder, judging by his name - John Milkovisch - may be an ethnic Serb too.

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

"...I don’t think I’d want it next to mine though....

You and me both; there is a house in Houston made of beer cans; and even though it is on the other side of town, and I rent an apartment,

IT'S STILL TOO CLOSE TO MY HOUSE.

[ElectricStrawberry]

More power to him....but I’d not wanna be in that house when there’s a fire.

[evets]

'Cheers' to the late John Milkovisch.
When I was a kid, they called us 'Hunkies'.
I guess it was slang for 'Hungarian'. I'm actually Croatian.

[blam]

Beer Can House (Houston)

[Think free or die]

"When I was a kid, they called us 'Hunkies'. I guess it was slang for 'Hungarian'. I'm actually Croatian."

More likely Bohemians - Bohunks. Lots of them moved to Texas and other places in search of farmland and a better way of life.

[Notary Sojac]

Quando omni flunkus moritati!

[Fiji Hill]

Inside house made from bottles in Calico, Calif.

[joan]

Does it make whistling and windchime-like sounds when the wind gusts?

[CJ Wolf]

Beer Bottle house. Built 1905. http://www.agilitynut.com/h/rhyolite.html

[ASOC]

LOL

The grand-daddy of em all. Used to drive past this on the way to Tonopah and points East of there - weekly.

Nevada is full of old mining town with more than a little odd in the way of buildings.

Then there is Midas NV, the world largest junkyard.....

[tutstar]

ping...

[Bon mots]

He should build a chimney out of bottle tops....just to cap it off.

ROFL!

We have a winner!

[Bon mots]

He can change the color of his house by just filling the bottles with different color stuff.

Still, it’s about the ugliest house I think I have ever seen and a huge waste of effort.

I think someone should send a photo to the “Webster” folks - the ones who publish dictionaries. The photo might be useful under the entries for “Tacky”, “Kitschy”, “trashy”, etc.

[fortunecookie]

When I was a kid, they called us 'Hunkies'. I guess it was slang for 'Hungarian'. I'm actually Croatian.

In the Pittsburgh/SW PA area, anyone Slavic was/is a Hunkie, and I heard it was slang for Hungarian, specifically for Slavs emigrating from the Austro-Hungarian region. I heard that a lot from my Pittsburgh relatives, though I grew up north of there. I'm not Hungarian either. I still occasionally make 'Hunkie soul food', i.e. noodles with cooked cabbage, pierogies, etc.

[Dad yer funny]

.. yup , his version of Highly Combustible Siding

[GulfBreeze]

So that’s what Ricardo Monteban has been up to.

[wideminded]

I once saw a photo of a house built from empty jars of embalming fluid. IIRC it was somewhere in Southeast Asia.

[Aquinasfan]

Seriously, in third world countries with warm climates, plastic bottles filled with dirt or sand would make good walls. Build a simple box frame out of 6 x 6s, and then fill in the walls with these “bricks.” The holes could be back-filled with clay, dirt, rags or paper.