Municipal waste used to kind low-carbon brick for Design Museum Gent extension

Structure studios Carmody Groarke and TRANS Architectuur Stedenbouw have collaborated with materials researchers to develop a brick constructed from native building waste, which will likely be used to construct the brand new wing of the Design Museum Gent.

The Gent Waste Brick was designed along with round financial system specialist Native Works Studio and supplies producer BC Supplies to be low-carbon, reportedly carrying simply one-third of the embodied carbon of a typical Belgian clay brick.

The Gent Waste Brick is constructed from recycled concrete and glass

The brick is constructed from 63 per cent recycled municipal waste sourced from Ghent, which was collected from an area recycling centre for demolition concrete and glass.

These recycled supplies are combined with lommelzand sand from the Belgian municipality of Lommel and sure along with hydraulic lime and floor calcium carbonate.

Gent Waste Brick designed for the Design Museum Gent — The pale gray tone of the brick was knowledgeable by the color of native buildings

The bricks are cured in a moist atmosphere for 2 weeks after which left to air-dry slightly than being fired, decreasing the quantity of vitality wanted to fabricate them.

As a substitute, the fabric will get its power by way of a course of generally known as mineral carbonation, which entails the calcium carbonate within the brick reacting with carbon dioxide within the surrounding air.

“The carbonation will proceed ceaselessly on the facade, making the blocks stronger and stronger through the years,” TRANS Architectuur Stedenbouw informed Dezeen.

“This fabrication course of, coupled with using recycled composites, leads to a brick with 0.17 kilograms of CO2e per kilogram – simply one-third the embodied carbon of a Belgian clay-fired brick.”

Production process of the Gent Waste Brick — The bricks are cured in a moist setting and left to dry naturally

Designed for the exterior facade of Design Museum Gent’s new wing, the Gent Waste Brick has a pale gray color that references the color of different civic buildings native to town and was licensed for constructing use in September 2022.

“The crew have labored intently alongside the Design Museum Gent to provide a extremely crafted, bespoke materials object that embodies the tradition and ethos of the establishment, difficult the fabric qualities and aesthetic properties of a standard brick and including to the lineage of design objects displayed and cared for by the museum,” mentioned Carmody Groarke.

Render of the Design Museum Gent extension — The bricks will likely be used for the Design Museum Gent extension. Picture by Carmody Groarke, TRANS Architectuur Stedenbouw and RE-ST

Design Museum Gent is organising workshops for native residents to participate in making a number of the bricks that will likely be used within the extension’s building.

“The bricks will likely be manufactured on a brownfield website in Ghent utilizing a clear easy manufacturing course of, which may simply be replicated in different city settings,” mentioned Carmody Groarke. “There aren’t any resultant emissions, by-products or waste.”

Different brick alternate options featured on Dezeen embody Kenoteq’s unfired Ok-Briq, which is made from 90 per cent building waste, and masonry blocks constructed from algae-based cement by Prometheus Supplies.

The pictures by Cinzia Romanin and Thomas Noceto except acknowledged.