Thai Temple Made of 1 Million Recycled Glass Bottles

A temple in the Sisaket province of Thailand is built of more than a million recycled glass bottles in shades of green and brown.  The Wa Pa Maha Chedio Kaew temple is nicknamed ‘Wat Lan Kuad’ or ‘Temple of Million Bottles’, a fitting name for a structure that takes low-tech eco-friendly architecture to a whole new level. The crematorium, surrounding shelters and even the toilets are made of glass bottles.  The monks continue to gather recycled bottles so they can create more buildings with them.

From Inhabitat:

The bottle-collection-turned-building started in 1984, when the monks used them to decorate their shelters. The shiny building material attracted more people to donate more bottles, until eventually they had enough to build the temple standing today. Bottle caps are also integrated as decorative mosaic murals. Going beyond use of glass as a sustainable building material, the bottle bricks don’t fade, let natural light into the space and are surprisingly easy to maintain. So if you’re looking to find Nirvana in a bottle, you might want to consider making a stop at the Wat Pa Maha Kaew Temple.

Who would have thought that you could build such a beautiful temple from items deemed by most as trash? Instead of piling up in a landfill, these bottles have given the monks a place to worship and live. I can only imagine what it looks like illuminated by sunlight – it must be quite a sight! Check out the rest of the photos over at Inhabitat.

Link [Inhabitat]

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