GWILEN

A solidification technology with many applications

Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed. Starting from this premise, a small team of about ten people, including an engineer from the Ponts et Chaussées and an architect specialized in the construction sector, have imagined exploiting marine sediments, which are irremediably formed downstream of rivers, for new uses. Based on an innovative process that solidifies, without cooking at high temperature, alluvial deposits from port dredging, the GWILEN team designs and offers products made from this 100% mineral material, without cement or resin, directly inspired by the natural phenomenon of diagenesis, which transforms particles into rocks.

Through its approach of using abundantly available resources and its process that is twelve times less impactful than cement production, this start-up is developing, in its Brest workshops, a new material that constitutes a solid ecological alternative for the construction sector, which is responsible for 41% of the world’s energy consumption and 40% of raw material consumption. Halfway between terracotta, concrete and stone, molded and tinted in the mass thanks to natural pigments, these solidified marine sediments present a unique aesthetic. They therefore offer numerous applications that the GWILEN team – from the Breton name of the river “La Vilaine” – likes to experiment and develop in view of the numerous perspectives offered by guaranteed natural properties.