Working closely with Unknown Works who designed the bench and Lyons & Annoot who built the design, the HyBrick bench was created for this prestigious Museum as part of its Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery. The exhibition displays opportunities for how the world can generate and use energy more sustainably to limit climate change, with the HyBrick display highlighting a possible future for low carbon brick manufacturing due to it demonstrating between 81-84% less carbon emissions from 3 green hydrogen firings vs natural gas.
Lyons & Annoot took to the project with immediate gusto creating a unique modernist-style seating design. The bench was carefully constructed on-site by expert bricklayers amongst other creations for the exhibit including a steam-bent bamboo bench and a timber bench with CNC cut imprints.
The HyBrick project was part of a collaboration between a panel of expert partners, and after an introduction by Greater South East Net Zero Hub and Hydrogen Sussex, the consortium included Limpsfield Combustion, Net Zero Associates, the University of Brighton, FT Pipeline Systems, Geopura and Safety Monitors. For more information on the project please visit the HyBrick page.
Michelmersh’s industry-leading trial showed the viability of alternative fuel sources in clay brick production and offers an optimistic option for a lower-emission manufacturing future. As the demand for more sustainable products increases, the Michelmersh group prides itself on innovation and being at the forefront of industry changes. The Group’s adaption to industry requirements through products such as its i-line and reflections ranges, prefabrication diversification via fabspeed and dedication to lowering embodied carbon emissions through a continuous path of product or process developments shows the extent to which Michelmersh is inherently driven to sustainability.
Sarah Le Gresley, Innovation Director for the Michelmersh Group had the following to say:
“Since the conclusion of the world first trials were conducted, we have been working tirelessly to promote environmental awareness for the project and our wider emission reduction efforts. We announced this April, that we have reduced our carbon emission intensity (per tonne of product) by 24.24% since our 2016 baseline, which is due to far-reaching efforts across all our employees throughout the company. We also launched sustainblebrick.com to showcase collaboration in decarbonisation across the ceramics sector, offering support to SMEs through carbon tools and showcasing emission reduction roadmaps. We have worked with the science museum for over a year to safeguard these products which will be on display for the next decade or more. We hope the exhibition will inspire the next generation to think about innovation and sustainability simultaneously, and we believe it is a wonderful conclusion to our trials, as we continue to explore the many options we can undertake to manufacture low-carbon clay products for the future.”
