Industrial designer Mary Lempres has created a bio-cement structure developed to mimic naturally occurring oyster reefs that tackle coastal flooding, filter seawater and promote biodiversity.
Called Reef Rocket, the structure comprises a duo of bio-cement modules with ridged surfaces that can be stacked in two directions and create a rocket-like shape when assembled.
Reef Rocket is a bio-cement structure formed from two modules
Norwegian-American designer Lempres drew on biomimicry for the project, a practice that looks to nature to solve human design challenges.
The ridged modules were created to be placed underwater and emulate coastal oyster reefs, which naturally filter algae from seawater as well as attract and provide shelter for other aquatic organisms.
Mary Lempres designed Reef Rocket to emulate oyster reefs
Oyster reefs also dissipate wave energy, mitigate storm surges and manage eroding coastlines, explained the designer.
Lempres collaborated with bio-geotechnical specialist Ahmed Miftah to develop a method for growing plant-derived cement that makes up the modules, which she described as “similar to the irrigation systems required for growing a plant”.
The designer drew on biomimicry for the project
The pair poured a bio-based, non-toxic solution containing a crude extract from globally grown plants over crushed aggregate.
Sourced in New York City, the aggregate was created from crushed glass and oyster shells salvaged from local restaurants and New York Harbour.
“The packed substrate grows similarly to a plant,” Lempres told Dezeen.
Reef Rocket was created to attract oysters
Saturated for three to nine days, the substance becomes natural concrete after the extracted biocatalyst causes minerals to form “mineral bridges” between the glass and shell waste.
“The resulting product is water-resistant, durable and comparable with standard concrete containing the same amount of aggregate,” explained the designer.
Lempres created the bio-cement with bio-geotechnical specialist Ahmed Miftah
“It can be grown in any environment without heat or otherwise burning fossil fuels and is derived from waste products, making it an affordable and scalable alternative to cement,” she continued.
“Bio-concrete is chemically identical to the material oysters produce to grow their reefs. The key difference is the bio-concrete we’ve developed grows in just several days, while oyster reefs take millennia to grow.”
This process closely mimics the natural processes that occur when oyster shells and coral reefs are grown, according to the designer.
“I was inspired by the ability of this reef-growing material to withstand extreme wave energy and corrosive saltwater,” she said.
The structure was designed to be placed underwater
When creating the modules, Lempres and her team made “hundreds” of prototypes.
Eventually, they settled on prefabricated moulds, which the bio-cement can be packed into and set – “like sand” – without the need for heat or chemicals.
Lempres and her team created “hundreds” of prototypes
Reef Rocket was deliberately developed to be small in size, lightweight and easy to assemble, making the design accessible to as many people as possible, according to the designer.
“Nature has the incredible ability to grow intricate and durable material, like shells and coral, without polluting its surrounding environment,” said Lempres.
“Reef Rocket harnesses the natural process of growing durable minerals to re-grow vital reef structures, benefiting humans and our ecology from the worsening effects of climate change,” she added.
“This paves the way for a future where hard and durable material can be grown like a crop, regenerating waste rather than polluting our environment.”
Previously, US design workshop Objects and Ideograms conducted a research project that involves 3D printing with calcium carbonate to create sustainable underwater “houses” for coral reefs and marine life to grow. Chinese materials company Yi Design developed a porous brick made from recycled ceramic waste that could be used to prevent flooding in urban areas.
Spotted: Concrete is the second most-consumed substance in the world behind only water, and this popularity comes from its remarkable characteristics as a building material, which include strength, durability, versatility, and economy. However, it comes at a heavy environmental cost, with UK company Cemfree highlighting that the ubiquitous material currently accounts for around 25 per cent of the UK’s ‘embodied carbon’ from construction – the carbon emissions associated with building materials and construction processes.
To tackle the climate impact of concrete, Cemfree uses a proprietary Alkali-Activated Cementitious Material (AACM) to completely replace Portland cement (OPC) in concrete mixes. Typically, OPC is used to bind together the other concrete ingredients, including sand and aggregates, and is the main component that determines the overall properties of concrete infrastructure.
However, despite its usefulness, OPC is incredibly energy-intensive to produce. To make OPC, limestone is heated to temperatures as high as 1,450 degrees Celsius in huge kilns, which results in around one kilogramme of CO2 being emitted for every kilogramme of cement.
Cemfree’s AACM binder activates ‘pozzolanic’ materials – materials that acquire cement-like characteristics through chemical reactions – such as Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) and Pulverised Fly Ash (PFA). Both of these substances are waste products, the former from steelmaking and the latter from coal-burning. The company’s binder reacts with GGBS to form a solid mass that is comparable to, and can therefore replace, OPC.
This technology forms the basis of three products: the company’s original Portland cement alternative, Cemfree Optima, as well as two follow-on products Cemfree Rapid and Cemfree Ultra. The company’s materials have already been used in a wide range of projects from a railway station to the Thames Tideway, with Cemfree’s staff working in collaboration with project experts to deliver a process that meets the project’s particular demands.
Concrete is a classic ‘hard-to-abate’ industry and Springwise’s library contains a range of innovations tackling concrete’s climate impact. These include electrified cement production, the use of AI to design out excess concrete, and an AI platform for optimising concrete recipes.
Pavilion X is a demountable structure that blurs the boundaries between sculpture and architecture. Conceptualized by Marc Leschelier, the framework of the pavilion is crafted from aluminum enveloped in a cement textile that undergoes a transformative process through the influence of water. The deliberate crumpling and stiffening of the material result in façade panels that are individually distinct, presenting a contrast between the organic, plastic qualities of a sculptural form and the rationality associated with an object. Presented by the Ketabi Bourdet gallery, the installation finds its temporary home in the gardens of the Hôtel de Maisons. Part of the Design at Large program during the inaugural edition of Design Miami/Paris from October 17th to the 22nd, 2023, Pavilion X defies conventional categorization by deliberately eschewing a defined function. Instead, it offers users an experiential space that prioritizes sensory engagement over practical utility.
all images by Ketabi Bourdet
a demountable structure between sculpture and architecture
Marc Leschelier, the Paris-based sculptor and architect behind Pavilion X, is known for his exploration of pre-architecture —constructing structures devoid of conventional functions. These creations often find their place in disused spaces, sculpture parks, or locations exempt from urban regulations. Leschelier’s approach to architecture revolves around the visualization of its inner dimensions, particularly the union of opposing materials and the interplay between fluid and solid matter, brick and mortar. For Leschelier, the essence of architecture is tied to the conflicting union and complementarity of opposites. This philosophy manifests in Pavilion X, where the construction process becomes a visual representation of this duality. The work provocatively questions the traditional purpose of architecture, pushing the boundaries and prompting contemplation on what architecture could be when divorced from utilitarian considerations.
the cement textile has been crumpled and stiffened by the action of water
the function of the building is not defined, however the space focuses on the impression rather than the use Pavilion X invites reflection on the liberation of form and experience
Spotted: Cement is a vital component in construction, with an estimated 4 billion tonnes produced each year. Yet at the same time, cement production is also a huge contributor to global warming, generating 1.67 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2021. Clearly, getting the world to net zero is going to require reducing emissions from cement. One of the companies working to achieve this is Sublime Systems.
In conventional cement making, limestone is heated to 1400 degrees Celsius until it decomposes, releasing CO2 as a by-product. The fossil fuels used to power the kilns and the CO2 released through limestone decomposition are responsible for almost all of cement’s carbon emissions.
Sublime’s technology uses an electrochemical process, instead, to break down non-carbonate rocks and other raw materials (such as industrial wastes) that don’t release CO2 when decomposed. This can run at room temperature and be powered by renewable electricity, making Sublime’s process net zero while also reducing manufacturing costs and complexity. The resulting Sublime Cement can be used in place of ordinary Portland cement for any use.
The company recently announced the closing of a $40 million (around €38 million) series A funding round, led by climate-tech-focused fund Lowercarbon Capital, and with participation from Siam Cement Group, the largest cement producer in Southeast Asia.
Reducing emissions from cement manufacture is crucial to reaching net zero. Luckily, there is no shortage of innovators working on ways to help with this. Recent advances spotted in the Springwise archive include using artificial intelligence (AI) to optimise concrete recipes and using fly ash to reduce cement emissions.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a low-cost energy storage system that could be integrated into roads and building foundations to facilitate the renewable energy transition.
The research team has created a supercapacitor – a device that works like a rechargeable battery – using cement, water and carbon black, a fine black powder primarily formed of pure carbon.
The breakthrough could pave the way for energy storage to be embedded into concrete, creating the potential for roads and buildings that charge electric devices.
MIT researchers created a set of button-sized supercapacitors. Image courtesy of MIT
Unlike batteries, which rely on materials in limited supply such as lithium, the technology could be produced cheaply using materials that are readily available, according to the researchers.
They describe cement and carbon black as “two of humanity’s most ubiquitous materials”.
“You have the most-used manmade material in the world, cement, combined with carbon black, which is a well-known historical material – the Dead Sea Scrolls were written with it,” said MIT professor Admir Masic.
The research team included Masic and fellow MIT professors Franz-Josef Ulm and Yang-Shao Horn, with postdoctoral researchers Nicolas Chanut, Damian Stefaniuk and Yunguang Zhu at MIT and James Weaver at Harvard’s Wyss Institute.
“Huge need for big energy storage”
They believe the technology could accelerate a global shift to renewable energy.
Solar, wind and tidal power are all produced at variable times, which often don’t correspond with peak electricity demand. Large-scale energy storage is necessary to take advantage of these sources but is too expensive to realise using traditional batteries.
“There is a huge need for big energy storage,” said Ulm. “That’s where our technology is extremely promising because cement is ubiquitous.”
The team proved the concept works by creating a set of button-sized supercapacitors, equivalent to one-volt batteries, which were used to power an LED light.
They are now developing a 45-cubic-metre version to show the technology can be scaled up.
Calculations suggest a supercapacitor of this size could store around 10 kilowatt-hours of energy, which would be enough to meet the daily electricity usage of a typical household.
This means that a supercapacitor could potentially be incorporated into the concrete foundation of a house for little to no additional cost.
“You can go from one-millimetre-thick electrodes to one-metre-thick electrodes, and by doing so basically you can scale the energy storage capacity from lighting an LED for a few seconds to powering a whole house,” Ulm said.
The researchers suggest that embedding the technology into a concrete road could make it possible to charge electric cars while they are travelling across it, using similar technology to that used in wireless phone chargers.
Battery-powered versions of this system are already being trialled across Europe.
Carbon black key to “fascinating” composite
Supercapacitors work by storing electrical energy between two electrically conductive plates. They are able to deliver charge much more rapidly than batteries but most do not offer as much energy storage.
The amount of energy they are able to store depends on the total surface area of the two plates, which are separated by a thin insulation layer.
The version developed here has an extremely high internal surface area, which greatly improves its effectiveness. This is due to the chemical makeup of the material formed when carbon black is introduced to a concrete mixture and left to cure.
“The material is fascinating,” said Masic. “The carbon black is self-assembling into a connected conductive wire.”
According to Masic, the amount of carbon black needed is very small – as little as three per cent.
The more is added, the greater the storage capacity of the supercapacitor. But this also reduces the structural strength of the concrete, which could be a problem in load-bearing applications.
The “sweet spot” is believed to be around 10 per cent.
The composite material could also be utilised within a heating system, the team suggested. Full details of their findings are due to be published in an upcoming edition of science journal PNAS.
Other attempts at creating large-scale, low-cost energy storage systems include Polar Night Energy’s “sand battery”, which is already servicing around 10,000 people in the Finnish town of Kankaanpää.
Concrete will remain the world’s dominant construction material over biomaterials such as timber as the world transitions to net-zero, claims GCCA chief executive Thomas Guillot.
The second most widely used material on the planet after water, concrete is produced by a massively polluting industry that accounts for around seven per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. For comparison, aviation is responsible for closer to two per cent.
However, Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) chief executive Guillot argues the focus should be on reducing the carbon footprint of concrete rather than seeking to replace it.
“Concrete is really the backbone of all modern society”
“If you look around us, concrete is really the backbone of all modern society,” he told Dezeen. “So it’s easy to say we get rid of cement, but the reality is that everywhere we look for infrastructure, for schools, for roads, for development, cement is there. The world needs cement.”
“So the question is now: if this material is fundamental to the world, then we are custodians as an industry of that material, and as much as we need concrete, we need us to bring net-zero concrete to the world,” he continued.
“The core of our priority is to bring net-zero concrete to the world in the next decades.”
Many sustainable building campaigners argue that to keep global temperature rises under control, concrete must increasingly be swapped out for carbon-sequestering biomaterials, especially timber.
But Guillot believes that his organisation’s vision for a net-zero concrete product will remain the building material of choice for most construction projects, in favour of timber or direct concrete alternatives like hempcrete.
“There are substitutes of concrete,” said Guillot. “The problem is the volume of the use of the material on the scale that concrete is used around the world. So what material can substitute concrete really?”
“You say some of these technologies are better, fine,” he added. “Put a price on carbon and let the market compete, and then we’ll see what is the most effective material,” he said in reference to the GCCA’s call for widespread market-based carbon pricing.
“I’m taking the bet: concrete has a future in a regulated world that says CO2 has a cost and you need to price it.”
The GCCA describes its mission as helping the concrete and cement industry transition to net-zero by 2050.
Its website features multiple fallacy-versus-fact-style articles pouring doubt on the suitability and sustainability of timber as a construction material while extolling the benefits of concrete.
Top: Thomas Guillot addressed the GCCA’s CEO gathering in Atlanta this year. Above: the Ribbon of Light viaduct in LA. Photo by Iwan Baan
But Guillot denies that his organisation is anti-wood.
“We are not against any type of materials,” he said. “I am definitely not the one that will start to bitch on wood or things like this, because that’s not the point, that’s not my role, honestly. We want to use our energy in trust-forming our materials, not bitching on others’ materials.”
Instead, he claims, the GCCA is seeking a “fair comparison” between the merits of concrete and timber.
“We need to use all the materials we have, but we need to have a fair understanding and we should be candid in front of the reality of what wood is,” he argued.
“We have an issue with deforestation, right? Try to scale using wood in core elements in line with deforestation, in line with mono types of forestry, biodiversity etcetera, etcetera, just try to map that.”
“We are not here to defend an old industry”
The GCCA’s membership includes huge corporations like HeidelbergCement and Cemex, plus more than 40 national cement associations.
It represents 80 per cent of the world’s cement manufacturing capacity outside of China, as well as some Chinese companies including CNBM, which produces around 500 million tonnes of concrete each year. China alone pumps out more than half the world’s concrete and cement.
The GCCA frequently cites the statistic that three-quarters of the infrastructure that will exist in the world by 2050 has yet to be built.
To enable that to happen, it argues, concrete will be crucial. However, Guillot insists the GCCA is not interested in “protecting the status quo”.
“We are not here to defend an old industry,” he said.
“We are not protecting the status quo. We are defending a tremendous – is it a revolution, an evolution? I don’t know, I can’t qualify it today – but we are defending a tremendous change of our industry.”
“We are habitants of the planet, and we totally understand that we are custodians of that material [concrete] and that we need to change things.”
And he concedes that the world will need to find a way to use less concrete and cement.
“We are not saying that it’s concrete and only concrete; there are things out there that will help, including reducing the quantity of material use,” he said. “I say we have to use that material in a more frugal manner.”
“We have to use concrete in a more frugal manner”
Guillot worked in the industry for 20 years before being appointed to lead the GCCA in 2021.
Last year, the body launched a 2050 net-zero roadmap, in what Guillot claims was a “first for the industrial sector”.
Its vision for net-zero concrete seeks “CO2 optimization at each place of the value chain”, according to Guillot.
That includes using concrete more efficiently with the help of 3D printing in construction and better design, plus more accurate measuring of cement brought to market – which is currently often sold by the bag.
The GCCA unveiled its net-zero roadmap in 2021
It also involves adopting recipes for cement that use less of the high-carbon base material clinker, with the GCCA supporting research exploring clay cement as an alternative to the standard Portland cement.
“Circularity is also an important element,” added Guillot. “I mean how much you can reuse the concrete itself, the recycling of concrete, the recycling of cement. Some of our members have put on the market some cement which has up to 20 per cent of circular material inside.”
By reducing clinker-related emissions, producing and using concrete more efficiently and transitioning to renewable electricity, the GCCA believes that the concrete industry can cut its total global carbon dioxide emissions – currently 2.5 billion tonnes a year – by 64 per cent.
The remaining 36 per cent, the single biggest element in its net-zero roadmap, relies on carbon capture at cement plants.
“The technology exists, just it is not applied to cement conditions yet”
Industrial carbon capture involves capturing CO2 from factory flues using machines, which can then be stored or utilised for other purposes. At least 35 carbon capture plants are currently planned by GCCA members, though none are yet fully operational.
“All our members are working on that, making the technologies happen, working on innovation to make sure that this is coming,” said Guillot.
“The technology exists, just it is not applied to cement conditions yet, so this is about to be proven,” he claimed.
Some experts believe that carbon capture will form a major part of the world’s transition to net-zero.
Others – including Cambridge University engineering professor Julian Allwood – have argued that the novel materials and carbon capture technologies being explored by industry cannot be scaled up fast enough to decarbonise all of the world’s concrete production by 2050.
The GCCA’s roadmap calls the 2020s “the decade to make it happen” – the period in which it hopes the industry can develop carbon-reducing technologies to roll out between 2030 and 2050.
It had an active presence at the recent COP27 climate summit. One of its main asks is for governments, which represent a large proportion of global demand for cement, to “stop buying high-carbon concrete” according to Guillot.
“You need to create demand for low-carbon material so that these materials can flow, can have its own market,” he said.
Instead of binding targets, which it argues would place firms in some countries at a disadvantage, GCCA members are required to set their own sustainability objectives that increase in ambition year-on-year.
“Judge us on action”
The body’s recently released one-year action and progress report said that the latest available data showed its members had reduced their net CO2 emissions per tonne of cement by 22 per cent between 1990 and 2020.
“Judge us on action,” said Guillot. “We will be relentlessly working on getting people in motion to the transformation.”
“That’s the essence of this association, the GCCA – we need to accelerate the net-zero transition. This is our headache, this is our life motive, and I’m waking up at night saying ‘how do we do that quicker?'”
Design studio Perron-Roettinger has created a pop-up shop for Kim Kardashian’s skincare and homeware brand SKKN in Los Angeles that showcases its products in a physical space for the first time.
The minimalist pop-up store, which is located inside Los Angeles shopping mall Westfield Century City, was designed using a limited material palette in a nod to the brand’s pared-back design.
Perron-Roettinger has created a pop-up shop for Skkn
“The SKKN [store] is about raw materials – bold, big blocks of stacked raw material – which is inspired from an inactive quarry that I visited once,” Perron-Roettinger cofounder Willo Perron told Dezeen.
“All different plaster and cement finishes echo the emphasis on the raw natural materials.”
The walls and counters are made from concrete and plaster
In the 1,330-square-foot (123 square-metre) space, homeware and skincare products are presented within curved wall alcoves or on top of sculptural counters made from grey concrete and plaster. The room is framed by two large portrait photos of reality television star Kardashian.
“Just in time for the holiday season, the pop-up will offer customers a luxurious in-person shopping experience with the entire SKKN By Kim collection – from skincare to home decor,” said the brand.
Skincare items are displayed in alcoves
The use of raw materials references Perron’s partner Brian Roettinger’s packaging for SKKN products, as well as Kardashian’s recently launched concrete homeware collection called Home Accessories Collection.
All the materials come in varying shades of Kardashian’s signature beige and grey colour palette, which she has used in her home and her shapewear collections.
According to Perron, the brand’s packaging and the store interior are united in their reliance on simple shapes and raw materials.
“The throughline idea is materials untouched, most primary and elemental state,” he explained. “Simple geometry is important to add a recognizable component to both the space and the packaging.”
Perron–Roettinger was also responsible for SKKN’s creative direction, brand identity and art direction.
The store mirrors the brand’s minimalist packaging
The SKKN pop-up shop is open until the end of the year in Westfield Century City, Los Angeles.
The longtime collaboration between designer Willo Perron and Kim Kardashian has seen Perron design other pop-up stores for the American reality star’s brands.
For Kardashian’s shapewear company Skims, Perron created a beige coloured pop-up shop in Paris with chunky display units and partitions.
Los-Angeles based Perron-Roettinger has also completed other pop-up shops for brands including Stüssy.
Spotted: As the world industrialised, cement became the glue that held civilisation together. It was used to build the homes we live in, the roads we travel on, and the bridges that connect us. However, cement production is carbon intensive and is responsible for approximately 8 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. As nations continue to urbanise and industrialise, the demand for cement is only expected to grow. As part of the effort to find a way to meet this demand while reducing the strain on the environment, researchers at Washington State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have added nanoparticles from shrimp shells to cement.
The research, which was published in the journal of Cement and Concrete Composites, describes the process of putting nanoparticles extracted from the shells of shrimp waste into cement paste. The result is a material that is significantly stronger than traditional cement. By increasing the strength of cement, it is possible to reduce the amount needed. Less cement needed means less made, and thus fewer carbon emissions.
The shells of crustacean arthropods are made up of 20 to 30 per cent chitin. Chitin nanocrystals are what allowed the research team to change some of cement’s properties, such as its consistency, setting time, strength, and durability. The researchers reported an increase of 40 per cent in strength and a 12 per cent increase in resilience to compression.
Next up, the researchers are hoping to scale up their work.
Springwise has spotted a number of innovations aiming to decarbonise the cement industry. These include a research team at the University of Colorado Boulder who have created a cement made using microalgae. Springwise has also spotted cement made from fruit and vegetable scraps, and a vaulted floor design that minimises the cement used.
Pavilion X invites reflection on the liberation of form and experience
