Heineken's World Bottle Plan

It's the kind of thing you heard about all the time now, but back in the 1960s, a scheme to build houses out of beer bottles on a large scale was way out there. Heineken had a real plan, though, which never got far off the ground.

It was called the Heineken World Bottle (or WOBO), designed by architect John Habraken after then-CEO "Freddy" Heineken had an epiphany. While visiting the island of Curaçao, Heineken was bothered by the mass amounts of trash--including his own bottles--and the lack of housing. His solution? Make a beer bottle that could serve as a brick when it’s finished.

Habraken came up with several designs, one of which was actually manufactured, but never made it to market. Read about the design and marketing troubles for the WOBO at Fact Co Design. Link -via the Presurfer