New Tech Takes Bombed Out Rubble and Turns It Into Lego-Like Blocks for New Homes

Russia attacked Ukraine thirty months ago, and during that time hundreds of thousands of buildings were destroyed. Soon, a new machine will start creating Lego-like building blocks for new dwellings out of some of that debris.

According to Nic Matich, a cofounder of Mobile Crisis Construction, an Australian charity that created the equipment, “the idea is to recycle and use what’s there.” Glass, garbage, and old walls are ground into a fine mixture in a mill and combined with water, clay, and cement in small amounts. After that, the device compacts everything into a block. After a few days of curing, the blocks are ready to be used to construct walls.

The blocks can be piled together with no traditional mortar because of their interlocking design. “With very little training, unskilled labor can put these walls together,” claims Matich. Rebar can be introduced through holes in the blocks in earthquake-prone areas.

The charity thinks that a single machine can create up to 8,000 bricks every day, which is enough to build 10 homes every three days. (That just refers to the exterior building; the interior residences still need to be completed.)

Cofounder Blake Stacey, an engineer with experience in brickwork, and crisis response specialist Matich began working on the idea five years ago after discussing a concept for interlocking blocks over drinks at a pub. “I thought, ‘What if we could move this around in a [shipping] container?’” recalls Matich. “Then we could rebuild and respond to crises.”

As soon as the design was complete, they began seeking money to respond to calamities such as earthquakes. However, Matich claims that because the news cycle is so fast, before they could gather the $70,000 or $80,000 required to create each machine, potential donors lost interest in each calamity. But there was increased sympathy for the current conflict in Ukraine. The machine is currently being transported in the first shipping container to a location outside of Kiev. (The freestanding mill is shipped in a smaller carton.) Unlike a conventional brick factory with a high-temperature kiln, the machine requires little power, allowing it to operate on a small generator even when the local grid is unavailable.

The first project involves rebuilding multiple townhouses in partnership with a local foundation. According to Matich, “it’s very simple construction, all in a row.” In a way, it’s a test case. To construct the next machine, the NGO has already begun to raise funds; according to him, there is “no upper limit on how much Ukraine needs.”

The nonprofit eventually wants to be included in the typical reaction to tragedies. According to Matich, “the UN might send in food, water, and temporary shelters.” “And as a second phase response, we could deploy our machines and begin to rebuild the area.”