#ThankfulTuesday: 17-year-old designs bricks that help prevent informal settlement fires
This is what we would call designing with purpose...
It is truly inspiring to see young students looking at solutions for very real-life problems.
One such student that is being deemed a 'WizKid' is Grade 10 learner from Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck, Adrian Huysamen.
"Adrian Huysamen (17) represented Eskom Expo for Young Scientists at the virtual Imsef with the research project entitled “A comparison between the influence of three different sizes of exfoliated vermiculite on the thermal and mechanical properties of cement construction bricks”." (News24)
Huysamen created construction bricks that can be used to build houses. His aim? To create "light-weight, fire-resistant, insulated and durable bricks" made using the mineral vermiculite.
His inspiration lay in helping many, many people who are forced to live in informal settlements.
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"The bricks can be used on their own without any other form of insulation in a building. These bricks are good for informal settlement building. As you don’t have extra cost of insulation, they’re light weight so building can happen faster. It’s safe in fires. We know informal settlement fires are constantly ongoing in the province, so it would help in a physical setting to save lives in that situation.” (News24)
The project took him more than a year to create and gather his research. He is also keen on completing his high school career before opening up his design for investment.
Image Courtesy of Facebook