This is an old idea, but the growing interest in cradle-to-cradle design has shone the spotlight back on this innovative idea. Back in 1963, Alfred Heineken (yes, the beer guy)
and Dutch architect John Habraken devised the concept of the
beer-brick. The glass bottle was designed so it could be reused as a
building material. As the story goes, Heineken initially came up with the idea after visiting the
Caribbean, and witnessing tons of bottles littering the beaches.
Combined with the lack of affordable building supplies on the islands,
he saw the necessity of building in a double life into his beer’s
packaging.
The WOBO’s interlocking design was three years in the making, made to
work like brick and mortar construction. The final bottle designs came in two sizes - 350 and 500 mm. A thousand bottles
bonded with cement mortar could build a 10″ x 10″ shack, and
construction would be simple because the instructions could be printed
right on the beer label.
The use of bottles in wall construction dates back much earlier, like the famous example of Tom Kelly's house in 1902, nicknamed "The House of a Thousand Headaches" for all the hangovers it held. But the step to embrace mass production is credited all to Heineken - I'll drink to that! Cheers guys.
http://www.anneke-bokern.com/pdf/athousandheadaches.pdf
