title. Eco-brick Making Workshop
date. 3 August 2019
city. Ho Chi Minh
collaborator. Playtime Festival
Having seen my experiments with circular materials, the organizer of Playtime Festival asked me to do a workshop related to bio-materials. I thought, how about making something from wastes commonly found in Ho Chi Minh City, and came back with the following proposal:
"Nước mía or sugarcane juice is such a common and affordable thirst-quencher that virtually every Saigonese must have had a sip at some point. But does it ever cross your mind what happens to the familiar sight of sugarcane waste so often piling up on the roadside? Could this solid waste that would otherwise end up at landfills, be turned into a useful material for urban needs?
This workshop will walk you through a construction technique that has enabled buildings to be made since Roman times, to a Vietnamese material tradition in building houses. Participants will adapt this material tradition to make a sugarcane-waste based brick, which can be taken home as a souvenir object or a building block for a sustainable urban future."
Sugarcanes are also grown by residents who live around Bình Quới - the site of the festival.
For more about Playtime Festival, please check out: http://www.playtime.city/participants
