Phase I: Material Composition
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Phase I involved experimenting with rammed earth brick compositions, the emulsions included different amounts of earth, water, ash and plant fibres.
Ash (sourced from the remnants of Mercurio's pizza oven) proved to be the most effective ingredient for binding the rammed earth brick.
Phase II: Tesselating Brick Design
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The main goal was to achieve a brick design that would not require a mechanical or chemical fastener.
To achieve this, several prototype iterations were made using different fabrication techniques.
Starting from an initial plaster prototype moulded in a silicone mould.
The angular edges and hook design created issues with the casting process, this implied the need for a mould that can be easily separated.
Phase III: RAMMED EARTH Brick Design Prototype
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Moving into the rammed earth material and a revised CNC milled wood mould (separating into two), the angular geometry design of the brick clashed with the material properties of the rammed earth.
This implied the need for a more rounded, organic design.
Phase IV: RAMMED EARTH Finalised Brick Design
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Learning from the previous iterations, a finalised rounded brick design with a CNC milled (now easily separated into four) would mould.
This phase created a succesfully designed brick module using sustainable alternative materials.
