Taking the Heat out of brick

Fired clay materials, such as fired bricks and blocks, are conventionally used for mainstream building construction. But they suffer from the rising price of fuel plus other related environmental problems - high energy usage and CO2 emission, for instance. The development of unfired clay building materials for sustainable building construction may solve these problems. It has been proven economically viable when environmental factors are considered and when the unfired clay building materials meets appropriate performance specifications and standards. Therefore, to meet the continuously increasing demand for low cost and environmentally responsible materials while strengthening economic growth and competitiveness, researchers are attempting to design and develop sustainable alternative materials, techniques, services and processes while maintaining the material requirements affirmed in the standards.