Compressed Stabilised Earth Blocks · Bengaluru

Unfired. Uncompromising. Unforgettably strong.

A smarter, greener alternative to fired clay bricks and concrete masonry. No kilns. No coal. Just high-strength, earth-based masonry for modern India.

Request a sample boxSee how it's made
  • > 7 MPaCompressive strength
  • 90% lessEmbodied energy vs fired brick
  • ±1 mmDimensional tolerance
  • 2,000/dayPress capacity
Where this comes from

People have built with earth for twelve thousand years. What changed is not the material but the machine that shapes it, and what leaves our press in Bengaluru is the same ground, held to a millimetre.

Our own film. It begins with the first houses raised from the ground they stood on, and ends on the factory floor in Bengaluru, where that same soil is graded, dosed and pressed into the blocks on this page.

Building with Earth: 12,000 Years of Wisdom, ReimaginedWhere building with earth began, and how the blocks are made now.
Watch on YouTubeEarthiva Infra
The process

Keep scrolling - you're operating the press

An animated cutaway of the block press: graded soil, then 5–8% cement, then water are dosed into the mould, compressed under hydraulic force, and ejected to cure for 28 days.

A material you can leave exposed

Surface & finish
The corner of an exposed earth block wall at golden hour, low sun raking across every block face
Pressed face - as-cast, no plaster needed
A stairwell walled in exposed earth block, dappled sunlight falling along the courses
Coursing at ±1 mm, raked joints
A study with exposed earth block walls, warm under a single pendant lamp after dark
Evening heat release - thermal mass at work

How it compares to fired brick

The numbers
  • CSEB versus fired brick. Two ways to make a brick - only one of them needs a kiln.
  • One is burnt, one is pressed. A fired brick is dug from often fertile topsoil, moulded, dried, then burnt in a kiln at around 1,000°C on coal or wood. A CSEB is local soil sieved and mixed with about 5% cement, compressed to a precise shape, then cured for four weeks and air-dried for two - no kiln, no smoke.
  • Embodied energy: about eleven times less. Fired brick 6,122.5 megajoules per cubic metre against CSEB at 572.6. Source: Auroville Earth Institute.
  • Carbon emissions: about thirteen times less. Fired brick 642.9 kilograms of CO2 per cubic metre against CSEB at 51.5. The kiln makes the difference. Source: Auroville Earth Institute.
  • Side by side. Fired brick is clay, often topsoil, hardened in a kiln, made at a kiln and trucked in, and varies kiln to kiln. CSEB is local soil with about 5% cement, hardened by compression and curing, made on or near the site, uniform and press-moulded, at 15 to 20% lower masonry cost.
  • Quality that does not cost the earth: up to 20% lower masonry cost. Made from soil on or near the site, so less is hauled in by truck. Low carbon, no kiln, local soil, built to last.
  • Building tomorrow from the earth beneath us. Unfired. Uncompromising. Unforgettably strong.
Earthiva CSEB compared with fired clay brick
PropertyEarthiva CSEBFired clay
Compressive strength> 7 MPa3.5 – 7 MPa
Embodied energy572.6 MJ/m³6,122.5 MJ/m³
CO₂ emissions51.5 kg/m³642.9 kg/m³
Dimensional tolerance± 1 – 2 mm± 5 mm or more
Plaster requiredOptionalYes
Thermal behaviourHigh mass, self-regulatingModerate

Energy and CO₂: Auroville Earth Institute, upper CSEB figure.

CSEB is not mud brick. It's graded soil, stabilised with 5–8% cement, compressed under hydraulic force and moist-cured for 28 days. It behaves like engineered masonry because it is engineered masonry.

A fired brick spends three days in a kiln at 1,000 °C - that's where most of a wall's embodied carbon lives. We removed the kiln entirely, and let press density deliver the strength and tolerance large projects specify.

Every batch ships with its soil analysis and crush-test certificate. At scale, nobody should take a material on faith.

One press, the whole range

Pick a wall thickness, then a block

SB6-010300 × 90 × 150 mm (L × H × W) · drag to turn it

The block a wall is mostly made of. Same bed as the quoin - two collared voids and a square between them - but both ends are mating ends, so both carry the key.

Every block shown to the same scale

Wall thickness

Built and standing

Selected projects

  • 1,200 t

    CO₂ avoided versus equivalent fired-brick supply, against IS embodied-energy baselines.

  • 2.4 M+

    Blocks pressed, cured, crush-tested and delivered across four project typologies.

  • 100 %

    Batches shipped with soil analysis and strength certification. Every single one.

Everything your consultants will ask for

We work the way large projects do - technical submittals, mock-up walls, mason training on site, and delivery matched to your programme. Take the pack, or ask us something hard.

Talk to our technical team

Start with a sample box

Six blocks, the full datasheet, and a crush-test certificate - dispatched within a week. Serious projects deserve material in hand.

Earthiva blocks stacked and photographed in black and white, under the words Building homes with earth
WorksAnkegowdanadoddi, Maddur, Karnataka 562138
HoursMon – Sat · 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM

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