The spongy pottery brick, reports claim, has many advantages over traditional materials and costs 30 percent less than imported brick.

For the past 10 years, there has been strong high-building construction in Hanoi. The research team says the new pottery brick insulates against temperature and sound and can reduce the quantities of cement, iron and steel needed for pillars, foundations and other structures, which would reduce construction weights, increase construction time and productivity. Heavy traditional materials put a lot of pressure on building foundations, lengthen construction time and increase costs.

From the environmental perspective, the use of wastes as building materials helps and also saves on the decreasing amounts of clay resources. The new brick does not have such rare materials as diatomite and vermiculite, which also reduces costs.

The research team also discovered the suburbs of Soc Son and Thanh Tri have significant clay resources that are easy to melt and perfect for the production of the brick. Vietnam also has large amounts of ash waste at thermoelectricity plants that cannot be used in cement and concrete production but is good for the soft brick.