The Boring Company, which is the tunnel development startup of Elon Musk, shared a video on Twitter yesterday to show the production of its Boring Bricks. These bricks are made up of dirt which was dug out during the underground drilling for the tunnel. The Boring Bricks cost very less and are made by compressing the dirt at extremely high pressures and by adding a small amount of concrete for binding.
According to Musk, the cost of one brick can be as low as 10 cents. This cost has made the brick an ideal building material to use for low-cost housing development. The short video shared by The Boring Company shows that the manufacturing of these bricks is already underway. The bricks are LEGO inspired and were initially announced by Musk in March 2018. They are said to be stronger and better than cinderblocks. Apart from being used for low-cost housing, Musk said that the company also wants to use these bricks for making scaled replicas of famous structures in the world like Egyptian Pyramids, The Sphinx and The Temple of Horus.
Bricks! pic.twitter.com/6fNROJ86sN
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) July 13, 2018
Musk also showed a presentation at the Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles where he explained the use of the dirt bricks for the development of walls and an Egyptian-themed model kit. The idea of using the dirt as a byproduct is useful for the company as well as it is also environment-friendly. This is especially meaningful as the company won the contract to build a transit system in Chicago between downtown and O-Hare airport. The Boring Company said that the bricks could be used as a portion of the tunnel lining rather than using additional concrete.
New Boring Company merch coming soon. Lifesize LEGO-like interlocking bricks made from tunneling rock that you can use to create sculptures & buildings. Rated for California seismic loads, so super strong, but bored in the middle, like an aircraft wing spar, so not heavy.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2018
The concept of using materials from the earth to develop buildings is not something new. These bricks are called Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks (CSEB) and are being used all over the world. Another plus of these bricks is that these are resistant to sound and fire. They also provide a natural cooling system which makes them ideal for a hotter climate. The Boring Bricks are perfect to be used in rural areas to build small structures, however, their application in an urban environment is not practical enough, according to an LA-based architect David Hertz. He said that in places like LA, where the land prices are premium, mud bricks are too big to be mass produced and used for the low-cost housing.
These bricks also weigh more than the standard building materials and also require a more stronger foundation and more energy consumption during the construction process. In the end, the completed construction site will be occupying more space, and later on, there will be less area available for further construction due to thicker walls. It is still not confirmed if these bricks can bring a difference to the low-cost housing or not, however, using an environmentally friendly material over concrete will have its advantages, one way or another. Apart from Boring Bricks, The Boring Company also revealed a video yesterday that shows a feature of light changing colors inside the testing tunnel in LA using a remote control.
Colors! pic.twitter.com/qwsn7Myude
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) July 13, 2018