The winner of the 2010 Next Generation contest from Metropolis Magazine is a brick that is grown rather than baked or fired. The process starts with sand, which is then printed with a layer of bacteria, calcium chloride, and urea. Microbes in the sand react with that mixture, forming a glue that binds the sand together. The finished product is as strong as marble and world-wide carbon emissions could be reduced by “at least” 800 million tons a year if this process were streamlined and the bricks were mass produced. Over 1.2 trillion bricks are manufactured every year. Images after the break