 The
west wall of the Goat House was constructed from used glass bottles and
a mix of mortar and clay. Designed by Chun-I Wang and Kelly O'Boyle, this
wall was constructed in approximately three hours using the combined labor
of five people. The wall was erected against a plywood back-form constructed
from lumber discarded after Georgia Tech's Homecoming Parade floats were
disassembled. |
 Used
glass bottles were incorporated as masonry units with approximately two
inches of masonry cover between bottles. No reinforcing steel was used in
the wall. |
 As
the wall approached 75% of its 4' design height, the students discovered
one of the problems with unreinforced masonry construction - the tendency
of gravity to take over.... This photo shows the uncured wall beginning
to pull away from the forms. |
 Due
to the instability of the uncured wall and rapidly approaching darkness,
the team elected to stop construction of the wall at a height of three feet.
Extensive hand-packing of mortar between the bottles was used to stabilize
the wall prior to curing. |
 At
the end of the second lab day, the designers removed the forms from the
wall and began the task of revealing the end surfaces of the bottles to
allow light through the wall. |
 Some
concrete was also removed from the interior of the wall to facilitate the
passing of light through the bottles. The small ends of the bottles were
placed toward the interior of the structure to prevent moisture from accumulating
in the bottles. They were also given a slight downward slant. |
 The
final product was a structurally stable, freestanding wall of surprising
strength. Among the difficulties encountered was the possibility of breaking
bottles, especially when chipping away concrete which had migrated between
the bottles and the back-form. The single broken bottle is unnoticeable
in this photo of the final product. |
