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STORY: Could the humble oyster help the construction industry reduce its carbon footprint?
London-based architect and designer Mooka Srisurayotin may have an answer with a new sustainable building material she developed: Oyster[Crete].
"Oyster[Crete] is a bio-alternative material to traditional concrete using discarded oyster shells."
Her goal is to eventually use this sustainable material in large-scale building applications.
Oyster[Crete] began as a research project for Srisurayotin who was investigating alternative building materials.
She was inspired by oysters shells, after seeing how many are discarded by restaurants.
"They went through like 5,000 shells a day. So we sort of took the shells and saw the potential in the shells and it has the same chemical composition as limestone. So that's how Oyster[Crete] began."
Srisurayotin is also the founder of interdisciplinary design studio Matter Forms.
It’s here where she transforms oyster shells after collecting them from restaurants in East London.
"...We would combine them into an Oyster[Crete] mix and all the composition within this material is all natural and the key ingredient is 80% oyster shells. We also use sand and clay, but it's very small quantity."
It's an eco-friendly alternative to cement which is responsible for at least 6% of global CO2 emissions.
Cement generates huge volumes of carbon dioxide not only from the coal used to heat kilns, but also during the conversion of limestone into clinker, a key part of the production process.
This oyster tray is one of the products Srisurayotin has created with Oyster[Crete].
"… we designed this tray so then it can go back into the restaurants, and they can serve oyster on a tray. So, it's like a fully circular process.”
“So, these are sort of our beginning point…”
She says she’s currently focusing on small objects, but eventually wants to use Oyster[Crete] for large-scale applications.
