bioMASON Inc. is not the nusual biotechnology start-up manufacturing company working on development of a natural process that potentially could revolutionize the building and construction industry: describing what they do as 'building with carbon, the same way nature does'. The firm employs natural microorganisms and chemical processes to manufacture biological cement-based masonry building materials. The firm was launched after the principals won an international design award: Next Generation The Big Fix by Metropolis magazine that posed the challenge of developing brick that was grown in contrast to being fired. Emerging from a study of coral structure: a very hard cementitious material created by nature in ambient sea temperatures with low energy and material inputs, the bioMASON process has since been refined and continually optimized for increased performance and reduced production costs. Driven by the intent to reduce the very high CO2 emissions that come from the use of fossil fuels required in the firing process to rpoduce bricks, bioMASON employs bacteria to grow a durable cement in ambient temperatures between loose grains of aggregate; producing building materials without emitting greenhouse gases, and without the depletion of non-renewable resources.
