Wednesday 11 September 2013

Heineken's Lost Plan To Build Houses Out Of Beer Bottles

image credit: Aaron Tang cc

In the 1960s, Dutch brewing company Heineken briefly introduced a different bottle for an entirely different reason. Heineken proposed a novel idea: rectangular beer bottles that could double as bricks for affordable housing.

It was called the Heineken World Bottle, designed by architect John Habraken. When then-CEO Freddy Heineken was visiting the island of CuraƧao, he was bothered by the mass amounts of trash and the lack of housing. His solution? Make a beer bottle that could serve as a brick when it's finished. It was a brilliant compromise, but Heineken's marketing department rejected it as effeminate.

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