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Name
Beata Szczurek
Education degree
Kandidat
Fagfelt
Architecture
Institute
Architecture and Technology
Program
Architectural Technology
Year
2023
Awards
Duravit

Project description

Through a series of experiments and multiple production methods, the project aims at optimizing geometry and manufacturing of bricks with use of reclaimed construction waste such as crushed bricks as well as by-products such as fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag. The new sustainable joint-free brick design introduces ambient-cured bathroom wall system, providing both a brick, a tile and a waterproofing in one, hence the name – brick tile.

 

BUILDING SYSTEM AND DESIGN OF GEOPOLYMER BRICK TILE

 

Bathroom constructed with geopolymer brick tile

3D representation of a bathroom fully constructed with geopolymer brick tiles
Bathroom wall elevation
Floor plan of a bathroom

 

Floor-wall junction detail

Exploded isometric of wall-floor junction
The 1:1 model of the brick tile system - back side with visible marks of geopolymer casting
The 1:1 model of the brick tile system - front side with the overlapping brick-tiles covering the horizontal joints

 

 

Introduction of two brick modules

Two main brick types - geopolymer brick tile and bottom brick
Tongue side of the groove and tongue brick joint
Groove side of the groove and tongue brick joint

Corner buildup - three iterations

Geopolymer brick tile production

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Models and forms created as a part of design process

 

Foto documentation of design development process 

Iterative design development of a brick tile geometry

The Research Through Design method has driven the development of geopolymer brick tile geometry.

The media supporting the development of the brick have been following: sketches, photos, extruding by hand, metal press as well as an extruder, laser cutting in metal and wood, creating MDF forms, self-hardening clay prototypes and standard red clay models, etc.
Selected methods and iterations have been presented in the slideshows below.

Extruding by hand and with use of metal press
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MDF form for manual extruding of clay
MDF form for manual extruding of clay
Compressing clay into the form
Lifting MDF form layers one by one (form 1)
Lifting MDF form layers one by one (form 2)
Extruding clay with use of metal press at metal workshop with use of negative and positive brick model
Extruding with use of extruder and metal lasercut form, postproduction of bricks, glazing and firing
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Iteration 1
Iteration 2
Iteration 3
Lasercutting a metal form for extruder
Extruding the clay through a metal form
Extruding long sausage of clay
Dividing the long clay sausage into small elements
Polishing the bricks by rubbing them against smooth stone countertop with use of water
Applying glaze onto fired bricks
Firing glazed bricks in oven in 1020 degrees
3D printing of the brick tile geometry prototype
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Digital model of first dimensioned brick tile prototype
3D printinig of the brick tile prototype with use of PLA
3D printed brick tile prototype

 

 

GEOPOLYMER EXPERIMENTS

All geopolymer types that have been tested: three to the left - fly ash based and the other two - slag based

Geopolymer production and experiments

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Porotherm blocks leftovers from previous semester used in production of geopolymer
Contruction waste and by-products used in produciton of geopolymer - sand, crushed bricks and fly-as/slag
Crushed porotherm blocks
Cylindrical geopolymer specimens casted in PVC pipes
Cylindrical geopolymer specimens taken out of their forms after three days of curing
Compression test performed on one of the geopolymers. The highest obtained compression strength - min. 4.11 MPa
Typical specimen fracture during compression test

The Royal Danish Academy supports the Sustainable Development Goals

Since 2017 the Royal Danish Academy has worked with the Sustainable Development Goals. This is reflected in our research, our teaching and in our students’ projects. This project relates to the following UN goal(-s)
-duravit

Duravit

I motivationen lyder det: "Beata Szczureks projekt demonstrerer ... at teglblokkens livscyklus kan forlænges ved at kombinere det knuste murstensaffald med geopolymer til en støbemasse, der kan anvendes som et nær CO2-neutralt alternativ til traditionel beton eller brændte tegl. Projektet udvikler metoder som anvender affald til et nyt produkt – bæredygtig soltørrede mursten fliser med særlig geometri og æstetik. Parallelt med tekniske undersøgelser af geopolymeropskrifter og trykstyrkeprøver, efterprøver Szczurek geopolymerblandingens potentialer i en vidtfavnende arbejdsproces, der resulterer i et klassisk og afklaret design af vådrumstegl."