A mother and daughter in northeastern Brazil have turned about 8,000 discarded glass bottles into a seven-room home that now welcomes visitors for stays and environmental education. Edna Dantas and Maria Gabrielly Dantas built Casa de Sal on Itamaraca Island, Pernambuco, using glass bottles for the walls, reclaimed wood for interior partitions and discarded toothpaste tubes for roofing tiles. The 70-square-meter (750-square-foot) house began as a solution to a housing need and evolved into a project centered on waste reuse and sustainable construction.
The project began on May 1, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Edna and Maria Gabrielly had land on which to build, and the need for a home led them to seek an alternative to renting. They began collecting bottles discarded on nearby beaches and elsewhere on the island, eventually incorporating thousands into the house’s walls.
How the family built the walls
The pair gathered bottles from beaches, streets, mangroves and vacant land around Itamaraca. By July 2021, they had collected about 6,000; the finished house contains approximately 8,000.
Their technique gives Casa de Sal its distinctive appearance. Edna and Maria Gabrielly set the bottles vertically into the walls, with the openings facing downward, and alternated their orientation between rows. Mortar holds the bottles in place and incorporates them into the walls. The glass allows daylight to filter into the rooms, and Edna told Metrópoles, a Brazilian news outlet, that the arrangement also reduces the amount of additional building material required.
The result is both functional and decorative, with the bottles casting intricate patterns of light throughout the rooms. The family extended the reuse approach beyond glass by incorporating reclaimed wood and pallets into the interior partitions and making roofing tiles from discarded toothpaste tubes.
The first section of the house served as a sewing studio while the pair continued building. They completed the home in stages over roughly two years, refining their techniques as they worked.
From a housing problem to an environmental project
The family’s immediate need for housing set the project in motion. Edna told Metrópoles that their landlord had asked them to vacate their rental property, while the pandemic forced Maria Gabrielly to pause her university studies. With land available, they decided to build their own house.
The idea also grew from conditions in their community. After tourist seasons, discarded bottles accumulated on beaches and in public areas. Edna said waste collection in the area was unreliable and that the island lacked a selective collection system.
Reuse was already familiar to Edna. With more than three decades of experience in recycling and environmental education, she grew up in a family accustomed to resourcefulness and making use of available materials. Maria Gabrielly, who studied fashion design, contributed her design background to the construction.
In 2014, the pair also founded Cabrochas, a sustainable fashion brand that began as a secondhand clothing store. The business reflects their broader interest in reuse.
Building Casa de Sal brought its own challenges. Maria Gabrielly told the Brazilian outlet Itatiaia that workers hired for specific tasks sometimes tried to direct the work, despite the planning and research she and her mother had done. She said others did not always recognize the technical knowledge and organization the project required.
Casa de Sal welcomes guests and offers workshops
Casa de Sal now serves as both the family’s home and a space for environmental education. According to the Brazilian outlet Seu Dinheiro, Edna organizes environmental workshops, guided visits and activities to raise awareness about waste disposal, while Maria Gabrielly manages bookings, welcomes guests and coordinates educational activities.
The property is about 100 meters from the beach. It was listed at R$430 (about US$85) for a two-night stay in January 2026, although prices may have changed since then.
During visits, guests can see how the bottles are integrated into the walls, how the house incorporates reclaimed materials and how the pair adapted their construction methods to the resources available locally. The project also gives Edna a setting to discuss environmental racism—the disproportionate impact of environmental harm on marginalized communities. In Itamaraca, the family’s experience with discarded waste and unreliable collection services has become part of those conversations.
Edna and Maria Gabrielly want to share their experience with other communities and encourage people to explore ways of reusing local materials. Through guided visits and workshops, Casa de Sal transforms the construction process into a hands-on lesson in giving discarded materials new life.