Artist Creates Artificial Island... Using 100,000 Plastic Bottles!

British artist Richard Swowa spent years collecting plastic bottles to build a unique project: a habitable artificial island named “Joxie Island.” Floating about 30 meters off the coast of Mujeres Island, near the Caribbean coast of Mexico, the structure was anchored on a base constructed from nets stuffed with more than 100,000 plastic bottles.

Above this floating foundation, Swowa built a fully functional home equipped with a solar-powered electrical system, a washing machine powered by wave motion, two swimming pools, a waterfall, and even internet connectivity. He lived there with his wife and their dog in the three-story house.

“Joxie” was Swowa’s second attempt at constructing a floating house from plastic bottles. His first project, “Spiral Island,” was built in 1998 in a lake near Puerto Aventuras, where he lived with his two dogs until 2005, when Hurricane Emily completely destroyed it. Rather than abandoning the idea, Swowa spent the following years gathering new supplies of bottles and began constructing “Joxie Island” in late 2007, completing the project by the end of 2008.

• The island covered an area of approximately 8,000 square feet, with open tours for visitors who could reach it using an eight-person barge also built by Swowa from recycled bottles.

• The island was designed for self-sufficiency, as Swowa grew vegetables and herbs on-site, making it function as a real home rather than merely an artistic structure.

However, the story of “Joxie Island” did not end as Swowa had hoped. The island was damaged by storms in the years following its opening, and local authorities eventually demanded its complete removal. The site was confirmed to have disappeared as of the January 2019 update.

Swowa’s two attempts to build habitable artificial islands from plastic bottles remain a remarkable example of transforming ordinary waste into genuine architecture, even though neither structure ultimately survived the harsh coastal weather conditions that originally made their construction exceptional.