Founded in 2016 by Tejas Sindal, CarbonCraft Design is a design and material innovation company currently based out of Hubli, Karnataka; comprised of architects and engineers who use material research and applied science as tools to formulate design solutions, in their pursuit to create products which reduce the global carbon footprint and pave the way to healthier ecologies for our future societies. One such product is the CarbonCraft Tile, manufactured using reclaimed carbon collected from polluted air.
I have always wanted to tackle issues around clean water, clean air, and clean food – as I feel these are the fundamental measurements of a healthy society.
Tejas Sindal
After being introduced to biomimicry as part of his undergraduate architecture programme, Tejas was enamoured by ideas that take inspiration from the natural environments around us. He went on to pursue a course in Emergent Technologies and Design, at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London. During this program, biomimicry, material science and computational design were adopted as the three main ideological pillars upon which Tejas based his design philosophies, and these ideas would remain integral verticals in his later experiments. Shortly after completing his course at AA, Tejas frequented an AA Visiting School called Breathe, where the practical applications of these verticals were tested. The intent of the annual programme was to conduct research, workshops and seminars around one particular material each year.
Raw materials are the building blocks of architecture and design. A design solution is only as effective as the progressive performance of the materials used in the formulation of these ideas, and a good design intervention is one which understands the fundamental nature of the materials it employs, and maximizes its potential. After conducting extensive material investigations at Breathe over three years – on cement, bamboo and bricks respectively – materiality and experimentation were key ideologies imbibed into Tejas’ design culture, which would soon become driving forces for his further ventures.
Tejas Sindal (R) conversing with craftsmen who hand make tiles.These experiments concluded with the practical application of the materials in an experimental structure, for example, building a hyperbolic parabola using bamboo, or a Guastavino Vault using bricks. However, these were domestic examinations, without the capacity to be utilised or translated into globally admittable design elements. This was an important aspect in Tejas’ line of enquiry – the ability to scale the idea. In order to extend the boundaries of positive impact and engagement of these experiments, the larger concerns of our social and urban conglomerates were addressed; finding innovative solutions to contemporary environmental concerns.
Tejas’ design process is informed by a rigorous academic mentality – no decision is made without a calculated data analysis on its effects, performance, and overall impact. Any obstacle that arises is broken down into its fundamental questions, in order to understand the exact nature of dilemma, and the various gaps that need to be addressed. Logical and computational design thinking is employed to traverse these conflicts, with every step of the process informed by the one that preceded it.
THE LINK
Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we have been ignorant of their value.
Buckminster Fuller
According to the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), air pollution is the greatest environmental threat to global public health, as it accounts for 7 million premature deaths every year. Today, nine out of ten people breathe air containing levels of pollutants that exceed the safety limits set by the World Health Organization.
This escalating environmental threat is only aided by the systematic growth of the construction industry every year. It has become a necessity for a designer in the modern era to facilitate sustainable design processes and formulate non-zero-sum game solutions which not only propagate good design, but also ease the damage caused to our atmospheres by the construction industry.
The curiosity that Tejas brings to his research allowed him to think beyond the mainstream understanding of environmental pollution, collaborating with various agencies, such as AIR-INK, who pioneered the concept of recycling carbon emissions. There are many ways to capture pollution today, but the larger challenge was to discover a way to efficiently utilize the resulting carbon collected.
I asked myself – is air pollution purely a challenge that needs to be solved technologically, or could it be that there is an architectural intervention that could be used to solve this issue at a larger scale?
Tejas Sindal
CarbonCraft Design began experiments with alternative building materials, using a unique process to store atmospheric carbon dioxide in bricks. Although this proved to be a competent method to manufacture bricks, in order for it to be economically viable, the production heavy process required the prices of the finished products to be much higher than traditional bricks. Any site which employed these alternate bricks would eventually plaster or paint over the constructed masonry wall, concealing the material. Consumer culture suggests that any product or material investment made, would at minimum be indemnified by the visual perception of these products in the spaces for which they are adopted. The use of these building blocks creates a dissonance thus, and preliminary market tests of these alternate bricks revealed low purchasing demands for the average consumer. This led to a change in the line of enquiry, in an attempt to find a suitable architectural element that was aesthetically pleasing and scalable, but also had adequate price points to fuel the necessary consumer demand.
The annual global tile consumption is about 170+ billion square feet, and India alone consumes about 9+ billion square feet, being the second largest producer of ceramic tiles in the world. Tiles have become a necessity for both interior and exterior spaces, and thus the scalability of the product is directly proportional to its market demand and consumption. Having identified a relevant product, the next challenge lay in discerning a suitable raw material that could be used to formulate a manufacturing process which not only reduces the environmental carbon footprint, but could also create an aesthetically and structurally robust tile.
MATERIAL EXPERIMENTS
The process of material experimentation and discovery through the scientific rigour of trial and error, was already deeply entrenched in Tejas’ psyche – values inherited during his academic years studying and lecturing at the AA School of Architecture, and this helped guide the investigations into the physical and chemical properties of various materials.
It was discovered by CarbonCraft Design that tyre management in India is a sector of the transport industry which remains completely unsupervised. Although exhaust emissions have been tightly regulated over the past few decades, the demand for tyres has only grown, resulting in an accumulation of waste tyres all over the world. There are only two ways to deal with tyre wastes; open incineration or pyrolytic degradation. While the former is prohibited as it is extremely harmful to the environment, pyrolytic degradation of tyres at pyrolysis factories is considered a safe way to breakdown tyres to oil, steel wires and tyre pyrolysis waste called recovered carbon black (rCB), which has no use apart from incineration at cement and brick kilns as a cheap fuel.
The selection of rCB was prioritised by its aesthetic, functional and scalable properties, and its dexterity across these verticals. Numerous experiments were conducted to understand, a.) what additives and mixtures would create a material composition that allowed rCB to maintain sustainable application strength, b.) the aesthetic diversity and proficiency that could be achieved, c.) the utilisation capability in a large-scale, factory-based production process, and d.) the positive effects such a process would have on the environment. Using the traditional process of manufacturing cement tiles, rCB was mixed with suitable binder and reinforcement agents, allowing the compacted and cured tile to obtain a structural and compositional integrity. This manufacturing process also enabled the local craftspeople and practitioners from the decade old cement tile industries a special opportunity to carry forward their craft, in a hybrid system that now employs reclaimed carbon as the primary raw material. The ease of flexibility allows the tile to be used in addition to many existing structures.
One drawback of this unique manufacturing process is that rCB in its powdered state is difficult to colourize, and the resulting tiles can only achieve monochrome grey colour variations. The warmth and expressiveness of architectural spaces can sometimes be neutralised by such colours, yet CarbonCraft gets around this apparent obstacle by experimenting with a unique set of patterns on the tiles, allowing them complement and even elevate the spaces in which they are used. Based on the inspiration from which these patterns were created, they are broadly divided into two distinct tile series. The IdenTile Series is intended to express the coexistence of human society with its urban fabric, through the representation of patterns using key cultural elements of eminent cities from around the world. Human cities are living organisms, each with their own identities and personalities – and this is what the IdenTile Series aims to recognise. The second series, called the IndusTile Series, exists as a commentary on the historical changes that the industrial revolution has had in the progress of human evolution. Through the use of patterns that represent natural resources like water, oil and paper, this series highlights the environmental changes and magnitude of resource consumption brought by the Anthropocene, and in this regard, these tiles upcycle the maximum amount of particulate matter pollution in their manufacturing process.
THE SCALABILITY OF IDEAS
Reducing the global carbon footprint through the formulation of complex design strategies is a goliath task, which requires an almost industrial design intuition, as it becomes important to ensure that the devised solutions can be translated into large scale, mechanically efficient processes. The manufacture of a single CarbonCraft Tile cannot generate an impact at a global scale, and only the exponential scalability of its systems will induce a positive environmental response. The field of design is buttressed by the ability of a designer to dream, and produce abstract ideas which act as catalysts for change. The CarbonCraft Tile, however, is the product of a dream grounded in reality; with decisions only taken after empirical analysis of the materials and processes, and in such situations, it is important to realise what the negotiable and non-negotiable aspects of the design are. A non-negotiable element for the studio was to use an alternate or reclaimed raw material, to create a functional and consumer-friendly product, and so the negotiable element naturally became the customisation and lack of diversity in the colour schemes. Although design requires adaptation of a product to the various contexts in which it is employed, an idea that is wholly scalable may not always have the privilege of enjoying modifications which are contextualised by a single house or apartment complex.
The studio ensured that during the creation of the CarbonCraft Tile, not only would the end product be environmentally sustainable, but every step of the process should also share the same philosophies of ecological sensitivity. Initially, CarbonCraft attempted to use Athangudi sand as an admixture along with rCB, but soon realised that large scale production would require copious amounts of this material; the mining and processing of which already has negative consequences to our natural resources. Thus, a mixture of fly ash, marble dust and quarry dust were used as substitutes to Athangudi sand.
Resource efficiency and mindful consumption were the priorities in our design process, and this resulted in a compromise in customisation; which means that no single customer would be able to acquire tiles of dimensions and patterns which are outside the standard designs of our moulds.
Tejas Sindal
This clarity and segregation of priorities become the elementary values that ensure the success of industrial ideas. A value-oriented process enables translatability across different materials, and so CarbonCraft continue experimenting with different materials, hoping to pave the way for a future in which all the fundamental building blocks on a construction site will be upcycled from what we consider waste resources – including roof tiles, bricks, upholstery and paints.
A SYSTEM FOR THE FUTURE
A single CrabonCraft tile is equivalent to preventing 56 kgCO2e, as compared to mass produced vitrified tiles, preventing approximately 15 minutes of car pollution, and purifying a days’ worth of healthy air for a single individual. CarbonCraft Design has already successfully prevented the equivalent of about 250 cars worth of toxic emissions for a year, by tying up with brands like Adidas, and laying carbon tiles at their numerous retail outlets. One of the company’s ambitions is to create a robust, process-oriented system that enables it to be taken up and deployed in any part of the world.
Tejas Sindal brings a contagious enthusiasm to the field of discovery through design, and his passion is exuded into everything he creates. An effort to reverse environmental damage requires an unrelenting determination that establishes a legacy of ideas, as the processes need to be allowed to carry on without a single person acting as the primary cog that allows the system to progress. The systems of CarbonCraft are nurtured with this sense of longevity, extending this idea by ensuring the education and even training of the various labourers and craftspeople involved in the manufacturing process, so that the endeavour started by CarbonCraft can be passed down generationally. This altruistic philosophy is aided by the numerous people involved with the Studio, prioritising the collective need over individual commendation. However, Tejas still allows himself to remain ambitious, saying, “It is a personal dream of mine that at some point, I will construct a building made entirely of upcycled materials. It may seem like a pipe-dream now, but I believe that we will be able to achieve this sooner than we think.” CarbonCraft Design currently occupies an important space at an intersection which links the history of human growth, industrial progression, and environmental change, with the limitless potential our future societies hold. In a contemporary world where the direction of our environmental growth is ravaged by the uncertainty of industrial progress, the ventures of CarbonCraft induce an optimistic sense of hope for our future environments and the human societies that will grow around it. Through experimentation, investments and pedagogy, the company bridges these ideas of a shared past and future, by embracing new ideas around building a climate conscious world⊗
Founded by Tejas Sindal in 2016, CARBONCRAFT DESIGN is a Mumbai based design and material innovation company, comprised of a group of Architects and Engineers who are developing carbon upcycling products in order to curb the world’s construction demands, and mitigate Air Pollution at a global scale.
TEJAS SINDAL is an architect cum researcher from Mumbai, with a strong inclination towards Biomimicry, and likes to explore sustainable innovative strategies around clean air, clean water, and clean food for the built environment. He likes to fuse material knowledge with nature’s strategies to solve global problems with perspectives brought from the field of architectural design. He has now set up a platform for research – CarbonCraft Design, to experiment with challenging work at the intersection of technology, craft and design.
