2,000 Re-Uses for Beer Boxes!

This morning, a friend sent me a link to what might be the cleverest uses of beer boxes I have ever seen.

Earlier this summer, German architecture students at the University of Applied Science in Detmold designed (website in German), realized, and constructed BOXEL.  The pavilion is constructed in one week by students out of over 2,000 beer boxes that have each been in use for over 10 years donated from a local brewery; the boxes will be recycled when the pavilion is disassembled.

Boxel was conceptualized by Henri Schweynoch in his response to an impromptu competition from Prof. Marco Hemmerling.  The building shape is based on a minimal surface and is organized along free form geometry.  The structure is held together by a series of slats and screws with the additional support of bracings in some of the upper areas.  The three base points of the structure also are concrete lined boxes as load-bearing points.

These students have demonstrated (even unintentionally) great ways to reuse common items.  Organic Bug supports reusing and recycling objects in useful ways.  After 10 years of use, these beer boxes were given one last task before they find themselves recycled – what a great example of being green.