Laura De Rosa The Canadian pensioner Edouard Arsenault built these houses in 1980, when he was 66 years old. They are found in Canada and today are a popular tourist attraction
A Disappearing Act/Wikimedia Commons
Referred to as “The Bottle Houses,” this eccentric architectural marvel’s primary building material lends its name to the place: glass bottles. Nestled on Prince Edward Island in Canada, the houses have grown popular with visitors.
Made from 25,000 colored glass bottles of various colors, the structures were built by Edouard Arsenault-the brain behind the project-who was inspired by a postcard his daughter had sent featuring a glass castle she had come across, which was situated on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Built on inspiration from a postcard-with the help of the community
He thus became fascinated by this unusual and imaginative concept that he started gathering bottles from his community. He called every restaurant, dance hall, all his friends, family, and neighbors and requested them to contribute to his budding bottle collection.
When he collected them, he spent one whole winter cleaning the bottles and removing the labels in his home basement. In 1980, when he was 66, he started the construction work.
A tourist attraction is born
As the community realized what he was building, they convinced him to allow the public into his peculiar buildings. The first Bottle House was opened to visitors in 1981 and today other buildings on the property are also open to the public.
The Bottle Houses are a dramatic display of creative recycling; creative reuses of cast-off items transformed into attractive and interesting structures.
