Building demolitions are messy. Whether it is being demolished using TNT or thousands of workers hammering the concrete off the steel bars, the process produces clouds of dust and piles of rubble that often go straight to the landfill. Omer Haciomeroglu, a design student in Sweden, came up with an idea to make demolitions more eco-friendly. He designed ERO, a robot that recycles concrete and separates it from rebar and other debris on site.
The concept, which won the 2013 International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) in the Student Design category, brings the wasteful approach to demolition and makes it more efficient. ERO can switch between pulverizing concrete walls into smaller pieces and spraying a high-powered water jet to crack the concrete surface. In both methods, ERO can separate the aggregate from the diluted cement so it can be reused. Even the water used in spraying is also brought back into the system.
Once the concrete is stripped off, the robot then cleans and cuts the rebar so it can be reused on future buildings. The ERO also has the ability to scan the environment to determine the optimum way to execute the demolition process. As a result, buildings can be disassembled without any waste, dust or added separation methods.
Now all Omer needs is enough funds to create a prototype.
Source: Inhabitat
