The SodaBIB -- A little bracket that can make a big difference.

The Bottle Interface Bracket (BIB) is a little bracket that can help people in developing nations build roofs out of reused plastic bottles. It uses the threaded neck of common bottles to create a thatch or tile roof. The BIB can be installed with a simple hammer and nails.

The roofing system depends on a simple fastener -- a plastic bracket that stacks the cut bottles so they nest into each other. The Bottle Interface Bracket (BIB) makes the assembly self-supporting, it creates a nest that ensures strength, it weaves a "breathing roof" of thatch that cools a building, and it guarantees water will drain efficiently off of the roof.

Two holes in the BIB are calibrated to host an 8-penny nail, or standard wood screw. Four threaded mounts allow for bottles to be held in place, and attached without additional tools.

The top two threaded mounts of the BIB hold the "Top Thatch" bottles. These mounts are aimed down onto the "Bottom Thatch" bottles to help the nested assembly hold itself together.

YES! These roofs work surprisingly well! SodaBIB roofs are designed with steep slopes and lots of overlap -- they work like traditional thatch roofs, but with 21st Century materials.

A. Rainfall strikes the roof. It hits a "Top Thatch" bottle. Surface tension and gravity prompts the water to slide down the bottle. B. Rainwater slides down either side of the "Top Thatch" bottle and drips into the cup of the "Bottom Thatch" bottle of the same assembly. C. The "Bottom Thatch" acts as a channel for collecting water. It is sloped to push water down toward the cut opening. The overlap between assemblies ensures that water drips from one "Bottom Thatch" bottle to the next.

SodaBIB roofs are intended to be used in disaster relief areas and for temporary housing. Wherever a relief organization can drop a pallet of water bottles, that's where we want to build this roof! As a result, SodaBIB roofs are planned to be built with few tools - a knife and a hammer - and instead rely mainly on the threading of bottle (caps) to help unskilled laborers create critically needed shelter. Below are the first steps to building this roof, but you can click here, to see the full instructions.

1. CUT THE BOTTLES	2. ALIGN SodaBIBs ON A PURLIN
3. ATTACH THE "BOTTOM THATCH"	4. ATTACH THE "TOP THATCH"

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Roofs made with a Bottle Interface Bracket (BIB) are designed to behave like roofs made with traditional thatch materials, but they look so much cooler, because they let tons of light in.

Completed Up-cycled Thatch Roof	Completed Traditional Thatch Roof

They're surprisingly easy to build too! To learn more about how these roofs are built and to see how they preform, click here.

The SodaBIB is an ongoing research project at the NYIT School of Architecture + Design. To learn more about how the great idea is getting even better, click here.

NYIT students built mock-ups for the SodaBIB project to test the capabilities of structure, drainage, ventilation, daylighting, and constructability. To learn more about how these roofs are built and how they perform, click here

The SodaBIB roof is designed to work like traditional thatch taking advantage of passive ventilation while controlling rain and sun exposure. To learn more about how these roofs are built and how they perform, click here

The SodaBIB is the research project of Professors Michele Bertomen, Farzana Gandhi, and Jason Van Nest. Students in the NYIT School of Architecture + Design have brought the design through three phases of development. See a full list of project credits here.

Bottle-building precedents consisted of many eco-conscious projects such as the Fizzy Bottle Project and the United Bottle Project. A whole list of such projects are summarized here.

Students are still creating more and more renderings to illustrate the idea; we look forward to showing you more in the future. As the work is completed, it is posted here.