Brigitte Kock and Irene Roca Moracia, graduates of the UK Art and Design School Central Saint Martins, worked together and produced a sustainable material that acts like concrete.
This bio concrete is made using invasive species like Japanese knotweed and the American Signal crayfish that are eco hazards known to invade water ecosystems.
On the other hand, conventional concrete is made from elements like sand. Sand mining has a major devastating impact on the ecology.
The removal of invasive species and their management costs the UK around 1.8 billion pounds. They incinerate or bury the material. Moracia and Knock wanted to relocate this waste.
Sustainable Alternative to Concrete Will Be the New Reality?
The LVMH group that includes Louis Vuitton and Dior already commissioned the project. They want to create alternatives to building materials and use them in their luxury stores as a sustainable interior.
Concrete contributes to the CO2 emissions so the colleagues wanted to make an alternative that will be good for the environment.
Moracia explains that there’s no time to question if something is sustainable or not. Their generation, she adds, has a perfect understanding of the need for a sustainable future.
This is why they created this positive project-a material capable of regeneration. Knotweed grows through concrete and breaks the integrity of roads and buildings.
It also affects plants and damages ecosystems.
Moreover, the American signal crayfish excavates into canal banks and rivers and changes the water quality, and leads to collapses of infrastructures and floods.
The Colleagues Used an Ancient Method
To create this material, they combined both species in a recipe that the ancient Romans developed and is based on volcanic ash concrete.
The knotweed is burnt after the removal and acts as an ash binder whereas the crayfish shells are used as a replacement for traditional sand or rocks since they contain fossilized carbon.
Throughout the years, the European economy overproduced and threw away construction materials of all stages. Moracia, as part of her research, studied the usage of legal grey zones that help acquire the needed material that’s abandoned by the construction companies.
Previously, Moracia made a collection of modular furniture designed from discarded building materials. The system includes 11 building blocks that can be used in various configurations for various functions, from storage to seating.
The blocks are made with steel mesh and are welded and cold-painted manually. They’re cast with cement and sand discarded by construction companies. The color is made from powdered brick.
Sources: