In 2020, a Brazilian mother and daughter started collecting discarded bottles; years later, 8,000 glass bottles became the walls of their seven-bedroom home that glows at sunrise

In 2020, a Brazilian mother and daughter started collecting discarded bottles from beaches. Years later, more than 8,000 glass bottles had found a new purpose as part of the walls of their unusual seven-bedroom home, creating a striking glow when sunlight hits the house at sunrise.

What began as a simple effort to collect waste eventually turned into a long-term construction project on Itamaracá Island in Brazil. Edna Dantas and her daughter, Maria Gabrieli Dantas, spent years collecting bottles and other discarded materials and finding ways to reuse them.

The result is a home that combines sustainability, creativity and unconventional architecture.


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How the bottle house project started

The idea began with the amount of waste the mother and daughter encountered around their island home. Discarded glass bottles were among the items they regularly found. Instead of treating them as rubbish, Edna and Maria began collecting them in 2020.

At first, the project was simply about removing waste from the environment. But as their collection grew, they began thinking about how the bottles could be used.

That eventually led them to incorporate the bottles into the construction of their own home.

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More than 8,000 glass bottles became part of the home

Over several years, the mother and daughter collected more than 8,000 bottles. The bottles became part of the walls of their seven-bedroom house, alongside other reused materials. Rather than hiding the glass inside conventional construction, sections of the walls allow the bottles to remain visible. Their different shapes and colours add a distinctive appearance to the property.

The house therefore serves two purposes: it provides a place to live while also demonstrating how discarded materials can be reused.

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The home has a special look at sunrise

The most striking feature of the house appears when the sun rises. As sunlight passes through the glass bottles built into the walls, they create a warm, glowing effect. The appearance changes depending on the angle and intensity of the sunlight.

What might have once been ordinary pieces of waste have therefore become part of the home's visual identity. The glass also gives the walls an unusual texture, making the seven-bedroom property stand out from conventional homes.

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A project built around sustainability

The house reflects the mother and daughter's wider interest in sustainability. Edna Dantas works as a social and environmental educator, while Maria Gabrieli Dantas is involved in sustainable fashion.

Their professional interests helped shape their approach to the project. Instead of buying new materials wherever possible, they looked for ways to reuse items that had already been discarded.

The bottle walls became a practical example of that philosophy. The project also highlights a broader environmental issue facing coastal areas. Beaches and tourist destinations can generate large amounts of glass and other waste, much of which could potentially be reused or recycled.

The house is more than a family home

The property has also become a space connected to sustainable construction and environmental education. The unusual design allows people to see how recycled materials can be incorporated into a functional building rather than simply being treated as waste.

For the mother and daughter, the project demonstrates that sustainability can involve creativity as well as recycling. The house also challenges the idea that environmentally friendly construction has to look plain or conventional.

From discarded bottles to a seven-bedroom home

The transformation took years. In 2020, Edna and Maria were collecting bottles that had been discarded on beaches. Over time, thousands of those bottles became part of the walls of a seven-bedroom home.

The project is now an unusual example of how waste can be transformed into something useful — and even beautiful.

With more than 8,000 glass bottles incorporated into its walls, the home has turned discarded materials into a defining architectural feature. And when the morning sun shines through the glass, the bottles create a glow that makes the house look dramatically different from an ordinary home.

What started as a mother and daughter collecting rubbish ultimately became a home built around a simple idea: give discarded materials a second life instead of throwing them away.