enlightened architects increasingly deploy conventional environmentally smart building measures solar panels, Energy Star-rated appliances, green

roofs. Now, add to these conventional measures an ingenious one: the 30,000 empty Red Bull bottles that Ridwan Kamil, an architect who lives in Bandung, Indonesia, made a key component of his residence.

In the United States, the high-caffeine beverage with the distinctive logo of two charging bulls about to lock horns is packaged in blue-and-silver cans. In Indonesia, it is sold in brown bottles. These bottles litter the streets, Ridwan notes. We don t have a recycling system, so when I decided to build a house for my family, I thought I would make them a significant part of the exterior and interior. I m a proponent of recycling. His contractor rounded up half of the bottles in garbage dumps in Bandung and the nearby cities of Jakarta, Tasikmalaya and Cirebon over a six-month period. Urbane, the firm Ridwan founded in 2004 after completing his education and working abroad (he holds a bachelor s degree in architecture from Bandung Institute of Technology and a master s in urban design from the University of California, Berkeley), hired scavengers to scrounge up the rest. The metal caps had of course been discarded, so he designed wooden tops for the 30,000 finds. The bottles are 60 percent of the faade, and they both direct light into the house and reflect it as if they were mirrors.

A typical house in suburban Bandung is made of brick, but ever since I was a child, I d dreamed of owning a home with a resortlike feel, Ridwan says. I was attracted to the idea of combining steel

painted dark brown and dark woods with the brown bottles. The bottles are 60 percent of the faade, and, especially at sunrise and sunset, they both direct light into the house and reflect it as if they were mirrors.

The house Ridwan shares with his wife, Atalia, and their two young children is situated on a trapezoidal piece of land and consists of two buildings separated by a courtyard. The entrance to the one-story building Ridwan refers to as the guest pavilion is accessed through a gate that appears to float because it isn t connected to the brown stone floor or to the drywall ceiling. The whole of one wall and part of a second in this reception area are composed of bottles. This space leads to a living room he infused with light and warmth, using merbau wood from sustainable forests on the ceiling and floor. Accents of red, that exclamation point of primary colors a carpet, an Arne Jacobsen Egg chair brighten the room. A sliding door opens above the courtyard, and a low glass window overlooks a swimming pool at the property s front perimeter.

PROJECT DATA Project Name Bottle House Location Bandung, Indonesia Completion September 2007 Site Area 373 m2 Gross Floor Area 320 m2 Number of Rooms 5 rooms Building Height 10 metres Client/Owner RidwanKamil

Architecture Firm Urbane Indonesia Principal Architect RidwanKamil Main Contractor Azkar Mechanical & Electrical Engineer DanySetiawan Civil & Structural Engineer DanySetiawan Images/Photos Urbane Indonesia, YosiWyoso, SjahrialIqbal It is obvious at first glance why the residence of RidwanKamil the principal of architecture firm Urbane Indonesia is called the Bottle House . Sixty percent of the total surface area is covered by recycled bottles.

Located in northern Bandung, Indonesia, the split-level courtyard house occupies a site area of 373 square metres. The residence is divided into three zones: Zone 1 features the guest pavilion; Zone 2 comprises the living and the children s bedrooms; and Zone 3 includes the garage, kitchen, dining room and library area. With a gross floor area of 320 square metres, the house has an open layout with minimal wall partitions to promote spatial flow in the interior. The aim of the entire design was to reprise a resort atmosphere, which was achieved by recreating a tropical landscape and utilising the building setback for a water feature and swimming pool. RECYCLED BOTTLES Collected from a six-month period from the dumping ground, 30,000 recycled bottles were used innovatively in different parts of the house. They were used to form part of the exterior skin of the perimeter wall surrounding the house. Inside the residence, the guest pavilion wall is also made entirely of recycled bottles. The bottle wall enables natural breeze to penetrate, allowing fresh air to circulate in the living room.

Every private area such as the bedrooms gets full daylighting because of the full glass exposure. However, this also means getting bad sun in terms of heat gain from the west. To reduce the impact, the bottles were also used to form the exterior skin for the walls of the children s bedrooms,

dining room and library area, which was done by alternating panels of bottles and glass in a chessboard pattern with a 60-centimetre gap in between. The glass panels can be pushed open to allow for ventilation. Not only do the recycled bottles function as passive green elements, they also serve aesthetic purposes. The bottle walls create an eye-catching faade, and in the interior, they also become pieces of artwork. The early morning and evening rays that filter in through the bottles also create interesting patterns and shades in the interior spaces, creating a special ambience. The warm colour of the recycled bottles also matches the timber flooring, further enhancing the resort feel.

GREEN SPACES Green spaces have been specifically allocated in the residence. Ridwan s home is peppered with at least five small areas that are dedicated to growing plants and flowers. Part of the 13-metre long perimeter wall bordering the swimming pool is made up of stacks of gardening pots containing flowers and vegetation. The bale a rectangular-shaped small pavilion by the swimming pool has a green roof. There are also plans to turn the flat concrete roof above the guest area into a green roof. ENERGY & LIGHTING No air-conditioning is used in the house as natural ventilation concepts have been applied throughout the house. Sliding and folding doors as well as windows are designed to be fully opened when needed, and, together with the presence of three courtyards (a main courtyard and two small courtyards), fresh air is allowed to circulate, ensuring well-ventilated spaces. The water feature and the swimming pool situated at the periphery of the house also provide relief to the courtyard area, bringing cool air into the interior space. The courtyards also allow ample natural lighting into the house, minimising the need for artificial lighting during the day. Erwin Maulana/Lee Bee Luen

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