The house the builds itself

Imagine living in a house that built itself, growing its own walls and roof like coral beneath the sea.

Well there’s a good chance that’s how your future house will be constructed, with the recent invention of self-forming bricks by US company BioMason.

The construction industry accounts for a whopping 40 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, with a fair chunk of this due to the fact that modern bricks need to be fired at high temperatures, a process which involves burning fuel and releasing CO₂.

This inefficient process caught the attention of architect and materials scientist Ginger Dosier. Thinking about greener alternatives, she became interested in the way the strong, hard structure of coral is created by millions of tiny animals using only the nutrients and minerals available in seawater.

She hit upon the idea of using micro-organisms to ‘grow’ bricks and started the company BioMason, which has just been presented with an $800,000 prize by Sir Richard Branson for developing the most groundbreaking green business concept of 2013.

Dosier says that the secret BioMason brick-making technique sees raw materials such as sand bonded into strong bricks in as little as five days, at room temperatures and without needing fossil fuels.