My DIY ''Vernacular'' Architecture Journal

[bmaxim]

I’m starting this thread to share my hands-on projects I’m working on around the home. I hope this topic will focus on a blend of ‘‘vernacular/ modern architecture’’, rooted in the natural beauty of the region where I live.

I hope this thread will serve as motivation to keep building.There’s a geodesic greenhouse I’ve been dreaming about—something inspired by Cotty’s work or Earthling—but I struggle to find the time to begin. I believe that by sharing my past work here, I’ll push myself to finally take on that project.

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First Post: The Bottle Wall of the Terrace

This project was completed +five years ago, and at the time, I didn’t think I’d ever be documenting it—so I don’t have any photos from the work process.

General description about this terrace:

This terrace was built with mostly things I gathered from around the house or repurposed from previous projects:

• many other things

About the Bottle Wall :
I decided to build this bottle wall because this place faces the sunset, and I imagined that when the sun goes down, the light would shine through the glass and create a unique visual effect.

To plan the layout, I modeled the wall in SketchUp and used 3-color circles (to represent the bottles) to test different ornamental patterns.

The final pattern is loosely inspired by traditional textile and carpet motifs from my region.

I usually find that my best design ideas are either the very first or the very last one—after many iterations. In this case, it ended up being the last 12th version that felt right.

Collecting the bottles was surprisingly easy. I posted a few ads online, asking for donations of10- 50–100 bottles, and eventually gathered what I needed.

I washed the bottles, printed the final version from SketchUp, and got to work.
Here is the final result:

[Charevir]

@bmaxim really like the design, especially the bottles wall, how depth is that wall?, did you cut the bottles?

[bmaxim]

The wall is only decorative, and wall thickness matches the length of the beer bottles ≈ 25 cm (10")

The bottles are kept whole. At first, I considered cutting them in half and gluing them together to achieve a neat look on both façades. However, it would have taken too much time and effort.

Here is the ‘‘dark side’’ of the wall

To keep the bottles clean and stop insects from getting in, I closed them with caps.

[Charevir]

Tks, eve the back side look great !

[bmaxim]

Let’s talk about beautiful things beyond SketchUp. With the warming climate, we’ve had some unexpected visitors—surprisingly domesticated ones. I’m talking about these butterflies (Wiki says they are ‘‘Painted Lady Butterfly’’)

It’s fascinating that they travel all the way from North Africa and can reach as far as Scandinavia, covering up to 500 km in a single day. All that effort just to enjoy our beautiful flowers—Thymus serpyllum, I guess .

We warmly await your return next year!

Here’s another guest who came straight from China, via AliExpress

[bmaxim]

Another project I did was an aviary for pheasants.

Underneath this aviary there is an old cellar, and the purpose of the aviary is not only to keep birds, but also to protect the cellar from rain.

The construction consists of a wooden beam structure, covered with welded mesh coated with green polymer. The wood is coated with walnut-colored alkyd enamel paint

The roof is made of Ondex PVC slate.Under the Ondex, on half of the roof, I placed shading net

On the northern side, to protect against the wind, I added a layer of transparent PVC foil.

This is how the aviary looks during different seasons of the year

The residents seem satisfied with their home

In the meantime, I am thinking about how to use the cool air from the cellar through ventilation and bring it into the aviary for air exchange inside the aviary.

The ventilation pipe from the cellar can be seen in the last picture + the new generation of pheasants

[bmaxim]

Continuing from the first post..

I was left only with green bottles and decided to fill the empty space between the cellar and the roof with a decorative bottle wall.

This bottle wall is not only decorative but also serves as protection against bad weather, since the cellar is over 100 years old and requires more advanced protection.

Because I only had bottles of a single color left, it was no longer necessary to design a separate arrangement of the bottles, as in the first case. I was a bit doubtful because I didn’t know how the corners between the bottle facades would look, but I was happy with the result, + improved my “bottle-laying” skills .

All that remains is to add lighting inside, so that the bottles will shine at night.

[RTCool]

I like the corners. Certainly expresses what they are.

[ateliernab]

I moved this to the gallery, less risk of seeing it auto close after some time

those are some really pretty birds you have !

[bmaxim]

The biggest drawback is that the bottle corners are fully sealed with concrete, and the interior lighting works well except in the corners.

[Danimaupin]

I really like this bottle look! Even with the sealed corners