When structures are destroyed by war or natural disasters, there is an urgent need to rehouse displaced residents. Most disaster relief housing initiatives focus on deploying tent-like structures. But an Australian charity called Mobile Crisis Construction has figured out a way to quickly produce more durable structures, using a raw material that is readily available: Rubble.

MCC has developed a mobile block-making factory that fits into a 20-foot shipping container. Rubble is loaded into it, mixed with water and concrete, and the factory compresses it and spits out Lego-like blocks that interlock.

The blocks must sit for one week to cure, and then they can be used in construction. Because the blocks are designed to interlock, no mortar is required, and unskilled labor can be used to erect walls. (Skilled labor is required for everything else, of course: Roofing, plumbing, flooring, electrical, etc.)

The holes you see in the blocks are for inserting rebar. MCC says that once reinforced, their structures are earthquake-, fire- and cyclone-resistant.

"Our mobile block factories use the rubble and waste materials from the disaster to make blocks for construction of sturdy, long-term structures in a very short time, with each mobile block factory producing up to 40 tonnes blocks per shift. [That's] enough blocks to build one school, three large houses or 10 small houses per week."

MCC held a successful crowdfunding campaign to send one of their factories to Ukraine. "MCC will establish the initial rebuilding efforts in a relatively safe area near Kiev, and expand operations into other areas as needed, dependent on funding."

Here's how MCC's system works:

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