Project Title: LAPRO (Pick Up, Processor and Distributor system of brick rubble in motion.)
Selected for Scholarships 2009-10, Master of Design Management, School of Design, IED Barcelona

LAPRO is a sustainable design business plan that designed a truck that recovers construction brick debris and transforms them in an aggregated product for the brickwork companies. The project arose as a possible solution to the debris problem in the city of Bogotá.

Bogotá produces around 200.000 tons of debris per year, 30% of which are clay rubble, which amount to 60.000 tons per year. Despite their potential uses, the clay debris are treated as useless waste that ends up contributing to the general problem of debris disposal in the city, that includes clogged sewers, rat and cockroach plagues, vehicle and pedestrian traffic obstructions and visual contamination.

LAPRO aims at giving the clay debris some market value through a system of recollection, transportation, processing and distribution so that it can be commercialized as a product in an already established market in the brick industry in the city. In the process of industrial brick kiln the brick powder is used as an aggregate to the mixture of clay and sands, called ¨desgrasante,¨ to ensure the bricks uniform cooking. Today, the brick manufacturers must produce handmade brick and semi industrial brick far from the cities, with all spending energy that implies, only to grind it and include it in their blend of industrial bricks.

LAPRO seeks to provide the ¨desgrasante¨ to the industrial brick companies, collecting and processing the clay debris that would otherwise be wasted in the construction sites.

LAPRO is a truck that allows the carrier to collect and grind clay rubble of several buildings and sell it to the industrial brickworks within the same city. This occurs through the transformation of discarded material in this case the peaces of brick that are wasted during the stage of masonry construction.

Inside the truck, two processes of debris transformation occur: first, a crushing jaw disintegrates brick rubble to less than 30 mm pieces. Then, a 3-roll mill grinds the brick from 90%> 2mm. Subsequently, by vacuum, the product is stored in the lower back, with a capacity of 13 tons. The grinding process that takes place occurs as the truck moves from one building to another so that considerable savings in time and space processes to store crushed brick.

LAPRO.pdf