By 
The TriplePundit European tour had an interesting break today at the Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam. Easily one of the world’s most recognizable brands, Heineken’s brewery tour itself was an impressive, if somewhat over-the-top exploration of marketing saavy. Somewhere on the tour they may have mentioned brewing beer.
With an eye for sustainability, I would not have been particularly impressed if not for a small display explaining what can only be described as a genius Triple Bottom Line idea way before its time – the Wobo bottle of the early 1960s.
Let me explain…
Apparently, while on tour in Curacao, Alfred Heineken was troubled at the substandard, and in some cases, non-existent dwellings of the impoverished residents on the Dutch island. He decided to design a beer bottle – a “a brick that holds beer” – that could actually be used to build the walls of homes after being emptied. He went so far as to hire a renowned Dutch architect, John Habraken, to design a new bottle specifically designed to interconnect with other bottles, as well as masonry so that large numbers of them (about 1000 for a 10×10 foot room) could easily be fitted together to create a functional and attractive structure.
Unfortunately, though the design apparently worked, the project never took off and no buildings, save two experimental ones in the Netherlands, survive.
I’d be curious to know exactly why this project didn’t take off, but even more curious to know why other brewers, or Coca-Cola for that matter, haven’t thought of something like this. Certainly there are shipping efficiencies to packaging square bottles, and there’s no cost to the company if people decide to build things out of them. Re-use is always better than recycling, and if properly done, this could result in a virtually waste-free product.
Perhaps this was something the world was just not ready for. Perhaps Heineken didn’t see the benefit in it for them at the time. I’m not sure we’ll soon know the answer, but what’s commendable about this idea is that it’s very rare to see something so “outside the, ahem, bottle” coming from a colossal global brand like Heineken, and when we find things like this, even if they are 40 years old, they’re worth bringing up to show people and companies what could have been.
Comments
June 17, 2009 at 23:41 pm PDT | Melissa writes:
Beyond just being waste free, think of the advertising boon from a permanent structure built of the brand! Plus all the people stocking up on cases of Heinie in order to have enough building materials. Brilliant!
June 18, 2009 at 9:16 am PDT | David Bergman writes:
I recall reading somewhere (Papanek?) that the problem was the Heineken PR/advertising people didn’t think it matched Heineken’s image so they nixed it.
June 18, 2009 at 10:06 am PDT | Nick Aster writes:
David – Now that is really fascinating. You don’t happen to have a clue where to find info on that do you? I’m googling around, but nothing so far!
June 18, 2009 at 13:35 pm PDT | tom writes:
To increase stability in the buildings by using these bottles, you could just fill the bottles up with sand or concrete to make it stronger. Using empty bottles to build a house seems kind of shady… but filling it up with atleast sand or something would make it much more durable and efficient.
June 18, 2009 at 20:49 pm PDT | Stone Thrower writes:
People in glass houses…
June 19, 2009 at 1:55 am PDT | Stone Thrower continuation writes:
…have to wake up when the sun rises
June 19, 2009 at 5:11 am PDT | Anonymous writes:
My Dutch wife told me that it was due to the glass houses not working well with the bright sunlight of Curacao.
You can see a display about these bottles at the Heinkein Experince in Amsterdam.
June 19, 2009 at 11:59 am PDT | Friso writes:
By strange coincidence there is a piece in a bi-weekly dutch magazine today on the wobo (de Ingenieur [the Engineer]). It states that the plastic pallets on which the bobbles shipped, could be used as a roof. According to the article the square bottle was heavier, thus raising the transport costs, drastically. Another reason for the lack of success was the climate in Curacao. The temparature got too high in a glass house.
June 19, 2009 at 12:50 pm PDT | Mike Wilson writes:
My understanding was that the board of Heineken at the time were extremely nervous about Alfred’s radical idea and thought it was going to destroy the company. As a result the idea was shut down. I can’t find my source for that info though…
June 19, 2009 at 14:13 pm PDT | Anonymous writes:
I don’t know what kind of shape the masons would be in after drinking enough bricks for a days work. lol.
June 23, 2009 at 9:02 am PDT | cklr writes:
we need to start a campaign for WOBOs!
June 25, 2009 at 2:56 am PDT | Alex Speers writes:
We folks from the Kootenays (British Columbia) are WAY AHEAD of this. See the Glass House
http://www.michaelkluckner.com/bciw4glasshouse.html
There is also a poor imitation that used to exist on the (BC) Island Highway.
CHeers,
Alex
July 07, 2009 at 3:34 am PDT | AllQuickEasyRecipes.com writes:
nice bottles :)
Regards,
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