A mother and daughter decided to collect thousands of glass bottles to build their house. The construction process took 2 years. More and more architects are abandoning polluting materials to embrace sustainable construction. Wood, stone and some natural fibres, such as bamboo, are the resources that are gaining ground in construction and promise to be the most widely used in the architecture of the future.
Faced with the need to reuse and achieve more environmentally friendly construction, Edna Dantas and her daughter Maria Gabrielly decided to build their own house on the island of Itamaracá (Pernambuco, Brazil) with no less than 8,000 recycled glass bottles. For two years, mother and daughter worked side by side to build their own home using only this waste, wood and cement. The result? A sustainable home with seven spacious and innovative rooms. ‘We want to inspire other people to create their own solutions,’ says Dantas in an interview with Favela Seeds.
Casa de Sal: the house in Brazil built with 8,000 glass bottles
An eco-friendly house
Mother and daughter — who are a teacher and fashion designer, respectively — decided to escape mass tourism and live on this island in Brazil. Both were taught to give waste the longest possible life. So they used the glass bottles that accumulated on the beaches in their region — which are usually single-use — and built their own house: Casa de Sal.
Simple structure
To keep the structure from being too complex, mother and daughter decided to design a project in which recycled wooden slats were the fundamental pillars. Between them, Edna and Maria Gabrielly lined up 8,000 glass bottles, which were added to the structure with cement.
Rooted in the earth
Honouring their land and their family were other goals of the two Brazilians. In fact, the daughter confessed the following to Favela Seeds: ‘We live in connection with nature. More than activism, it is cultural resistance and a lifestyle.’ So they decided to build a sustainable house that would not harm the environment that had given them so much.
With lots of natural light
Making the most of natural light was something that mother and daughter could not overlook. So they decided to leave the structure of the glass bottles exposed so that sunlight could enter through them and create a cosy effect inside the house. To keep them in place and add a decorative touch, they placed tiles made from toothpaste containers.
The interior decoration is also made from recycled and natural materials.
Understated decoration
Edna and Maria Gabrielly decorated the seven bedrooms in a very similar way. In one of them, we can see how wood and other recycled materials make up all the furniture. In the living room, we can see that the Brazilians left the cement floor, decorated with a small patterned rug.
A house to enjoy
Mother and daughter decided that the whole world should know about their achievement. Through their Instagram account @casadesal.eco, they tell us day by day about the construction process, which took two years. What’s more, if you want to experience sleeping in this house for yourself, you can rent it for your holidays.
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