Sugarcrete® secures European Commission funding

Built by Bagasse, a collaboration between the University of East London’s (UEL) Sugarcrete®️ team and the Barcelona-based Bagaceira Project has been selected as one of 69 winners of EU Worth Partnership II funding.

The collaboration will receive 10,000 euros, 50 hours of coaching, and will get to participate in an exhibition and an on-line design event. Alan Chandler, Co-Director of UEL’s Sustainability Research Institute warmly welcomed the recognition. He said, 

Working with talented practitioners who are as committed as we are to creating radical bio-based materials that create sustainable, beautiful and ethical materials really drives our research, and receiving EU funding to pursue such work is doubly rewarding.

The Bagaceira Project’s Julia Steketee was thrilled to be working with the Sugarcrete® team. She said, “I am excited to collaborate with the experienced team of architects, researchers, and material scientists from the Sustainability Research Institute to design a sugarcane bagasse-based insulation and acoustic panel system, developing production methods that are scalable and resource efficient.”

The team will be using the funding to develop materials and interior design products with the aim of identifying manufacturers to produce them for sale on the European market. This would be an opportunity to fully commercialise composite materials made from bagasse, the waste fibres left over after sugar production.

UEL Senior Lecturer, Armor Gutierrez-Rivas explained the collaboration will explore the potential uses of such composites as thermal and acoustic insulation. He said,

With 75% of the EU building stock considered energy inefficient, and an estimated 140 million Europeans affected by long-term exposure to all-day traffic noise, improving both acoustic and hydrothermal properties with bio-based insulations as an alternative to existing petrol-based solutions presents a unique market opportunity.

The Sugarcrete®️ project is a collaboration between the UEL MArch Architecture programme and the Sustainability Research Institute at University of East London with the support of Tate & Lyle Sugars. Its primary focus so far has been research into producing low-carbon alternatives to bricks and concrete. Bagasse is combined with sand-mineral binders to produce Sugarcrete®️ bricks that have a carbon footprint six times smaller than the traditionally-made clay versions. 

The Bagaceira Project is a material research and design initiative that explores how sugarcane waste  can be transformed into materials and products for interior architecture and design. Designer Julia Steketee began it as part of an applied design research programme at ELISAVA Design University in Barcelona.