Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Ellie Birkhead has developed a process of brick making that incorporates local waste products from the Chiltern Hills, in an attempt to "forge a future for local industry".
Birkhead designed six types of brick, which all incorporate local materials, as her final project on the Social Design masters at Design Academy Eindhoven.
Called Building The Local, the bricks are made using clay mixed with hair from a hairdresser, horse manure from a stable, glass bottles from a pub, wool and straw ash from a farm, and used grain from a brewery.

The hair is used to make an unfired, fibrous brick known as a stock, which is usually produced using straw. The wool and horse manure bricks are made in a similar way. The straw ash brick is fired and the straw changes the final colour of the brick. Similarly, the addition of waste glass creates new colours and glazes in the clay when the brick is fired. The brick made using spent grain creates a porous product as the grain burns off during firing.

All of the ingredients are sourced from the Chiltern Hills ? once a centre for brick-making in the UK. Historically, almost all of the local buildings were constructed using this distinctive orange-red material.
Birkhead, who is originally from Buckinghamshire, works with crafts and traditional industries that are at risk in the UK. In a video produced to accompany the project, Birkhead said she wanted to ask if it was possible to "overcome the ...