Kite Bricks is developing a revolutionary product that will change the way we build houses, buildings, bridges and sidewalks. From now on structures will be real thermal, much more stronger and very cheap & fast to build.
Smart Brick is a revolutionary brick and the basis of a new construction system covered by issued and pending US patents.
The brick is amenable for building houses, buildings, bridges and more.. The block is constructed of high-strength concrete with unique properties that allow for the building of truly ecological structures, with large savings in electricity expenses associated with seasonal heating and cooling. The block allows for faster, cheaper, more precise, and stronger building than is available through traditional building methods.
Bricks are designed to be easily joined together, with open internal spaces for insulation and infrastructure elements to be run through the bricks and allow for easy access to these elements.
Floors, walls, and ceilings are all constructed by appropriate bricks to allow for facile, solid construction with little mess and significantly reduced construction costs.
Zohar needs further funding—around $3 million—in order to bring the Smart Brick to market. Future plans could include the introduction of robotic builders (as shown in the video) that could assemble properties using the bricks.
What does he think of the Lego comparison? “It didn’t come from there,” he says, adding that the focus was always on insulation and strength. The fact that the blocks have been designed to connect together easily was secondary.
One of Zohar’s key focuses has been to make it as simple as possible to build using the bricks. “I’d like people in Africa and other places in the world to be able to build with our brick and get a thermally-insulated house using the same money they would have spent on tin.”
YCombinator news and Ars Technica have been discussing the impact and potential of the Kite Bricks.
WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
SAVE MONEY
Estimates show that using the revolutionary brick system can lead to savings of 50% of the total expenses associated with building an eight storey building.
SAVE ENERGY
The brick’s amazing thermal properties can lead to enormous savings in heating and cooling costs. It is known that ~60% of energy costs for a building are associated with heating and cooling, including water heating. The Smart Brick allows for enormous savings in electricity and other energy costs by effectively redirecting heat in the summer, while trapping it in the winter. The block’s design allows for greater thermal energy control and thus significant savings for owners as well as a smaller energy footprint for all of us.
SAVE RESOURCES
The brick is also amenable to clean, quiet building practices as the bricks are made to order, including shapes, sizes and finishes, both inside and out.
In a Smart Bricks building project, the required bricks are delivered to a building site, where, in combination with traditional doors, windows, etc., the desired structure is quickly and quietly completed with a minimum of labor and time.
EXTREME STRENGTH
The methods of Smart Brick construction also significantly reduce the requirements for natural materials such as sand, iron, and water. The block has been designed with the aid of top experts in building and design; the block and its associated structures are made for extreme strength, including during earthquakes and weather-related stresses.
REAL LEAD BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES
Real alternatives to the Smart Brick do not exist. Most blocks are “dumb” in that they simply provide a structural scaffolding onto or through which important elements are decorated—just as was done 100 years ago. Some “advanced” blocks may include insulation. The Smart Brick offers it all: high thermal control, full passage of pipes, wires, cables and the like, finishes for both indoors and outdoors, extraordinary tensile strength, ease of construction, safety of materials, and total application throughout a structure—floors, ceilings, and walls. The Smart Brick is the solution for building from Africa to Manhattan.
ARCHITECT POINT OF VIEW
Architects consulted in brick development see a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities with the brick for making inexpensive, revolutionary structures, from single homes to multi-storey towers. ~50% reduction in building costs: controlled room temperatures for significantly lower running costs; virtually no debris at building site; clean and quiet construction; no requirement for scaffolding, as bricks come complete and their attachment does not require mortar or leveling; amenable for building multi-storey structures with ease; no cranes required; for taller structures, elevator on site to take up bricks is enough; no requirement for sand in floor construction-building sand is becoming very expensive as less of it is available in the world.
All of the infrastructure is accessible through patented removable faces on the blocks – thus meaning no more broken floors or walls to get at leaky pipes or frayed cables. Bricks arrive in proper sizes, number and finishes. No additional finishing work is required on the building site.
WORLDWIDE SOLUTION
The whole world is Smart Brick’s future. The brick’s patented design is flexible enough to be relevant from Vietnam to London. The brick’s low cost and great flexibility means that it can be constructed from a wide range of materials, reflecting local availabilities and traditional uses. The brick offers advantages to the Indian farmer as well as to the French wine broker. The blocks allow expression of the individuality of the owners / occupants of the final structure, while always giving low construction cost, high quality of performance and outstanding thermal behavior. While we anticipate choosing certain markets for initial block penetration, we do believe that the block will find acceptance throughout the world.
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.