Prestigious Times Higher Education Award for UEL research

“I congratulate our teams at the Sustainability Research Institute and School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering for developing Sugarcrete®, a truly innovative building material which has the potential to enhance lives and lessen the impact of climate change on our planet.” 

The Times Higher Education Awards are widely considered the Oscars of UK higher education. This year’s awards, which attracted hundreds of entries across 19 categories, showcased talent, innovation and commitment across all aspects of university life. 

THE Award Judges said: “The UEL team's open access approach is refreshing and should be commended. They have championed collaboration and, through this, are helping put the technology and the ability to make use of it, where it is needed most”.

Sugarcrete® was developed by the University’s Sustainability Research Institute and the School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering with one aim: to support countries such as India to replace 1.5 billion coal-fired bricks with a cheaper, carbon-neutral non-polluting alternative. Sugarcrete® is a knowledge dissemination model developed as ‘open source’, providing know-how for rural communities, with options for project development consultancy bespoke to industrial and NGO partners.

The University’s first partnership in 2023 was with Chemical Systems Technologies in India. Teams developed cost-effective hydraulic presses to supply brick manufacturing capabilities to rural communities, developing a pilot school building which was completed this year. The University currently has over twenty signatory partners across the world and is developing a range of Sugarcrete® applications ranging from entrepreneurs requiring block manufacturing to NGOs such as Besafe in Cabo Verde creating alternatives to the environmentally catastrophic dredging of sand for concrete.

Sugarcrete® is also being used locally, most recently to build seating, planters and birdhouses for a new community garden in North Woolwich, London. This project was a collaboration between UEL students, local school students and the London Borough of Newham. Sugarcrete® has already won several awards, including the Built by Nature Prize 2024 and the Climate Positive Awards’ circular economy section. It has also been nominated for the Earthshot Prize 2024, Green Gown Awards 2024, RISE, and the material innovation category of the Dezeen Sustainability Awards.

Alan Chandler, Co-Director of the SRI, said, “This is an incredibly proud moment for the whole team who have worked tirelessly on this wonderful project. Sugarcrete® can address challenges experienced by sugarcane-producing countries. Local communities in the global south are encouraged to use carbon-intensive materials in their building projects, often presenting poor thermal efficiency, acoustic performance, seismic shock or flood resistance. By marrying agricultural bio-waste with local mineral binders and geometry innovation, Sugarcrete® provides an alternative to address their context-specific requirements.” 

Armor Gutierrez, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, added, “We are delighted to receive this award for a project that is tangibly addressing global challenges, especially those challenges experienced by sugarcane-producing countries."

Oluchukwu Okonkwo, Researcher and PhD Student said, “I am so proud of the Sugarcrete® team and the whole University of East London for this incredible award. I remember being very nervous, but still very proud when I was presenting the Sugarcrete® project to John Gill, editor at Times Higher Education, when he paid our university a visit on the 9 May this year. This recognition is a reassuring tap on our shoulder which will give us the strength to keep doing our work.”