Here at Inhabitat we’ve showcased a host of amazing structures made from repurposed bottles, but we’ve never a project as polished and sleek as this. The Far Eastern Group sponsored this three story “EcoARK” movable Fashion Pavilion for the 2010 Taipei International Expo. The just-finished structure features walls made entirely out of plastic bottles and it’s built to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes. These aren’t your average-joe coke bottles, however — they’re POLLI-Bricks by miniWIZ!
“EcoARK is the world’s lightest, movable, breathable environmental miracle,” said Douglas Hsu, Chairman of the Far Eastern Group. Though POLLI-Bricks have been used here on a grand scale in the EcoARK they can be used to make anything from a vase to a garden wall to a house. Just a small amount of silicone is placed between the bricks to make a bond between their specially designed interlocking structure.
It took 1.5 million POLLI-Bricks to make the sturdy EcoARK. The 130 meter long structure is completely deconstructable — it can be taken apart and reassembled at another location, kind of like a giant LEGO building. To top off the eco-cred the building was engineered to withstand large earthquakes and typhoons. Sounds like Taipei will be able to repurpose this building for a long time to come.
Via Jetson Green
http://www.glorytrade.com.tw/
This is the company of the designer.
Very cool! Saw photos of the Miniwiz EcoArk this weekend. I think it\’s for the international floral expo in Taiwan. Here\’s the link I stumbled on in Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eager/5121626881
miracle of construction !!!!and boon of environment….
Think of how much plastic will be reused if a mot of buildings were made out of these.A low carbon recycled plastic product. What else do you need!?
Has anyone actually seen this building? And what are the actual pros and cons using this instead of glass, wood or any other building materials
i guess thats one way to keep plastic bottles out of land fills.
It’s a shame that the Web Store and most information links from the Polli-Bricks site are blocked because of malicious software. I’m sure they’re a reputable company, but they should really get their commercial act together. VERY disappointing.