Gaza rebuilds using Lego-like bricks made from rubble

Inside temporary A workshop in Gaza, rebuilt after being destroyed by Israeli air strikes, Suleiman Abu Hassanein stands among piles of broken concrete, trying to give it a new look. His voice over the phone sounds tired, carrying the weight of what he’s trying to do: rebuild in a place where building materials are no longer available.

The construction crisis in Gaza did not begin with the last war. For years, an Israeli blockade has restricted the entry of cement, steel and other construction materials, slowing reconstruction efforts throughout the Strip. But after nearly two years of intense bombing, the scale of the devastation has pushed the regime beyond collapse.

According to UN estimates, Gaza now contains more than 60 million tons of rubble, while hundreds of thousands of displaced people still live in tents with little protection from the heat or cold of winter, and there are no clear prospects for reconstruction.

In that environment, the aggregate is no longer just debris. It has become one of the only remaining building resources.

One local response is Green Rock, a project led by Abu Hassanein that aims to recycle the remains of destroyed buildings into usable Lego-like bricks. Similar interlocking brick systems have been used elsewhere, including parts of Europe and in post-conflict places such as Sudan and Iraq. But in Gaza, the project is emerging under very different circumstances: not as an architectural experiment, but as a response to the imminent disappearance of traditional reconstruction materials.

Abu Hassanein says that the idea was born out of necessity and not out of innovation. He says: “We were faced with a simple equation: destruction without solutions.” “So we tried to turn it into a resource.”

The process involves crushing and sorting the rubble, then mixing it with local soil and alternative binding materials developed within Gaza before compressing it into blocks using a hand-made machine. The resulting interlocking bricks can be assembled without traditional mortar, reducing reliance on cement, which is still scarce.

Interlocking Lego-like bricks made from recycled rubble inside the Green Rock workshop in Gaza.

Photography: Hassan Harzallah

Under normal circumstances, this type of brick requires some cement, about 7 to 12 percent. But because access is still severely restricted, the team says it has developed a version using locally available alternative materials instead. Engineer Wajdi Joudeh helped determine the size and structure of the bricks to meet engineering standards and connected the team with technical expertise from outside Gaza.