Majd Mashharawi has invented environmentally friendly, cheap and lightweight blocks that use ash instead of sand. Could ‘Green Cake’ help rebuild the besieged Gaza Strip?
Three wars in 10 years and an 11-year Israeli blockade have left thousands of buildings in the Gaza Strip in ruins.
What if affordable construction blocks could be made out of the rubble of war itself? This was the challenge that 23-year-old Majd Mashharawi set herself – and she may have found an answer in her ‘Green Cake’ invention.Give stories, not stuff
Getting hold of construction materials in Gaza, where Israel controls borders, airspace and waters, is expensive and time-consuming – if possible at all. It was after studying civil engineering at the Islamic University of Gaza that Mashharawi came up with an alternative to cement.
Green Cake looks like ordinary concrete but is more environmentally friendly as it re-uses coal ash. It is called ‘cake’ because it is much lighter than concrete, and the blocks are 25 per cent cheaper than concrete equivalents. Helped by a grant from the university, by August 2016 the project had…
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