The invention of the century, turning earth into concrete.
Gnanli Landrou has invented a special powder that can transform earth and water into a solid building material similar to Concrete. His source of inspiration was the mud house where he grew up in Togo, West Africa.
This new concrete, has a very low carbon footprint and has already been used in an apartment block.
According to Forbes, he is one of the 30 most influential entrepreneurs in Europe.
Who is Gnanli Landrou
Gnanli Landrou grew up in a mud house in Togo, West Africa and didn't go to school until he was 16 when he moved to France. Now 31 years old, he founded an ecological concrete start-up.
Born to the Kabiyé people of northern Togo, Landrou grew up in a large family. But at an early age he was sent to his uncle, a migrant worker, who offered his services to the local population.
While the adults in the group helped out in the fields or building mud houses, Landrou brought water, food or carried bricks for the elderly. There was no school and Landrou learned the art of life from his elders. His experience in clay constructions became fundamental in his new life as a young entrepreneur.
The change to Europe
At age 16, his family allowed Landrou to travel to France. It was his host family who first sent him to school, where his scientific talent did not go unnoticed by a local teacher.
With the help of this teacher, Landrou made up for two years of lost primary school work. This help was fundamental and, in just two years, he managed to master the school knowledge to complete his bachelor's degree.
After completing his bachelor's degree, he took a degree in materials science at the University of Limoges. Landrou later moved to Switzerland where he did his PhD. In 2018 he received the ETH Medal for his dissertation on the Chair for Sustainable Building at ETH Zurich under the supervision of Guillaume Habert.
Oxara, sustainable concrete
With his partner Thibault Demoulin, Gnanli Landrou founded the startup Oxara, an environmental start-up that produces a cement-free building material for building houses, more environmentally friendly and cheaper than concrete.
Conventional concrete is made from cement, which is energy intensive to produce, and the raw materials are limited, gravel and sand. Oxara's Earth Concrete, on the other hand, uses excavated material that would otherwise end up wasted in the trash.
This special concrete hardens after 24 to 48 hours and is suitable for non-structural elements in houses with up to three floors. Oxara Earth Concrete is being tested in several pilot projects. The application potential of ecoconcrete is enormous both in developed and developing countries.
“Our technology offers clay construction almost all the benefits of cement processing, being about 2,5 times cheaper and 20 times more ecological”, explains Landrou
The market potential for non-structural building elements is considerable: the volume in Switzerland alone is estimated at around CHF 700 million.
Conclusion
This is an inspiring life in which an African born in the poorest environments in Africa, studies to be more than what his apparent destiny offered him and transcends himself proving that the world can be much more.
Taking advantage of all its ancestral knowledge of building mud houses, it associates this form of construction with the western construction culture in cement and concrete and creates an ecological concrete based on earth.
Gnanli Landrou not only proved that it doesn't matter where a person comes from to change the world, he also proved that it can be changed for a greener and more sustainable future for all of us.
What do you think of this ecological concrete? Is it important for Africa and the world for other similar projects to emerge? We want to know your opinion, do not hesitate to comment and if you liked the article, share and give a “like/like”.
Picture: © 2020 Gabi Vogt Photography