civil engineering

Bricks made of bacteria and sand at room-temperature

An American architecture professor, Ginger Krieg Dosier, 32, Assistant Professor of Architecture at American University of Sharjah (AUS) in Abu Dhabi, has won this year’s prestigious Metropolis Next Generation Design Prize for “Biomanufactured Brick.” The 2010 Next Generation Prize Challenge was “One Design Fix for the Future” – a small fix to change the world. The Next Generation judges decided that Professor Dosier’s well-documented and -tested plan to replace clay-fired brick with a brick made with bacteria and sand, met the challenge perfectly.

“The ordinary brick – you would think that there is nothing more basic than baking a block of clay in an oven,” said Horace Havemeyer, Publisher of Metropolis. “Ginger Dosier’s idea is the perfect example of how making a change in an almost unexamined part of our daily lives can have an enormous impact on the environment.”

 

I am constantly surprised at how ‘in-house’ it is possible to keep supplies and services throughout the duration of the project here at L’Amandier. It’s a hive of activity and keeps the local labour employed, but also saves unecessary transport and haulage (a plus for ecological reasons). A few weeks ago, I arrived on site to find a temporary brick-making facility had been constructed. Although it looked a little incongruous surrounded by the beautiful scenery, it is only very short-term and means we can quickly fabricate to requirements.

The quality of materials is laboratory tested and the resulting piles and rows of freshly made bricks are strangely satisfying to see.

The machinery is simple yet effective…

And the sun does the rest.