The Bottle Houses in Prince Edward Island (PEI), also known as the symphony of color and light, was built in 1980 by Edouard Arsenault. It is made of hundreds of recycled colored glass bottles, a popular tourist site in PEI. Bottle wall construction is the process of building a structure, usually housing, with glass or plastic bottles and a binding material. This sustainable building type helps reduce the chances of bottles dumped at landfills and promotes reuse of "waste" material. The bottle houses on the Island have many benefits to the locals and visitors, such as; its aesthetic style, low cost of production to renewable resource architecture and sustainability (8).
Introduction
Architecture today pushes the notion of creating buildings that are sustainable and resilient, whether it be by reducing non-renewable resources needed to keep the building running, using passive architectural methods to retire the use of electricity and fuel or by conserving water. Several organizations, such as Leeds, BREEAM, and Energy Star have been put in place to promote sustainability and hold designers accountable for the long-term goal of sustaining the planet for future generations. The Bottle house on Prince Edward Island- P.E.I., designed by Edward Arsenault in 1980, portrays sustainable architecture in a unique way. It promotes the use of recycled materials, glass bottles in this case, to create three resilient structures that not only create shelters but euphoric moments for the people of the community and tourists which visit the spaces.
History
Bottle wall construction is the process of building a structure, usually housing, with glass or plastic bottles and binding material. This sustainable building type helps reduce the chances of bottles being dumped at landfills and promotes the reuse of "waste" material. Its benefits range from aesthetic style, low cost of production to renewable architecture and sustainability[ii], carrying out the three steps of effective waste management; reduce, reuse, and recycle. Bottle house construction has been present since ancient Rome, the very first was constructed by William F. Peck in Tonopah, Nevada. At the time these houses were not constructed for aesthetic purposes like they are today, they were appreciated due to their ability to reduce the load of the upper levels of houses & reduce the amount of concrete needed. The building was made with 10,000 bottles of J. Hostetter's Stomach Bitters, medicine bottles that were initially reused by being refilled with glop and resold by shady dealers. The demand for this type of vernacular architecture arose due to the short supply of construction materials and the rising population levels in the area. Peck took it upon himself to construct these buildings to tackle the housing demand-supply issue in the town, using mortar as a binding element, lime as an interior finish and the bottles as insulators to keep the homes warm in the harsh winter.
Bottle House, Prince Edward Island
The inspiration for the Bottle House, P.E.I. was taken from another glass house in British Columbia. By 1980, Edouard Arsenault had already built three of his structures which have become a tourist landmark for the locals in the Cape Egmont community. He sourced his bottles from various trash sites around him and even began to get his communities support as they began to donate their bottles to help his project. They were built from the ground up and bound with cement to form the shape of houses. As light shines through them they create kaleidoscopic patterns and stained-glass colors on the floor, creating a magical and euphoric feeling for the visitors that enter the space, as to why it's named "the symphony of color and light"
Life of Edouard Arsenault
Edouard Arsenault, the architect of the bottle village, was born in 1914 to Emmanuel and Roseline Arsenault. He spent most of his time in Cap-Egmont before he moved to the United Kingdom to serve in the second world war. He started off as a fisherman, a protégé under his father, then he began to fix up and construct boats. In 1948 he married Rosina Leclerc who later bore his first two children; Yvette and Rejanee, they all lived in the Cap-Egmont lighthouse where he served as the resident lighthouse keeper till the lighthouse became automated, and they moved onto the grounds of the current bottle houses in P.E.I. Roseline bore two more kids; Maurice and Pierre there. During his retirement from being the Lighthouse keeper he had the vision to create the Bottle houses which consist of a six-gable house, a tavern and a chapel, however, the chapel was only completed after his death.