Unfired clay brick research

A couple of years ago we were very concerned about the lack of sustainable heavyweight building materials that were made in Wales. Large and heavy materials have a large transport footprint due to the need for large lorries to ship them into the country. We were also worried about the carbon footprint of firing bricks, so we approached the University of Glamorgan about a research project to try and rectify this.

Progress has been made and the research project is well underway with a large partnership of companies and organisations in Wales taking part. The initial report has just been published and the results are looking very promising. The University Research Team have created an unfired, but stabilised brick that is capable of being a facing brick. Initial calculations show that it has an embodied energy of one tenth that of a normal fired brick, so is shall be much less polluting to the environment.

The brick is presently an Oxford clay brick that is mixed with a new combination of stabilisers and then compressed. Exact proportions are, of course, a closely guarded secret at present, but we hope that this will be an excellent product that has a wide range of applications across Wales (and beyond).

RDE has samples of the bricks in the centre, so please feel free to come in to have a look.

RDE is trying to get monies to do additional research into developing this as a truly Welsh product rather than just being a product developed in Wales. So watch this space.

Project partners along with Rounded Developments Enterprises are:

Project funders are: