Mahin Haynes earns Norman Esch Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award

Mahin Haynes, DAS Co-op student at Giannone Petricone Associates (external link) ​, has earned the Stage 1 Norman Esch Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award for terraLoop—a groundbreaking solution transforming excavated soil into on-site structural materials.

Turning Waste into Opportunity

terraLoop brings an soil‑upcycling plant directly to the construction site, turning excavated soil into building material. This eliminates hauling costs, shrinks schedules, and reduces the embodied carbon in one integrated process. The process builds on research from two papers: the mix‑design methodology outlined in The Development of Soil‑Based 3D‑Printable Mixtures (external link)  and ETH Zurich’s recent work on robotic earth‑material printing (external link) ​. 

Mahin explains:
"An alternative was needed that could make soil indispensable to the project instead of yet another dumping scenario waiting to happen; like the dumping occurring in the Ottawa River on Kanesatake First Nation territory. Earth-based products already exist, but existing solutions were expensive and inefficient because of hauling and off-site processing costs. terraLoop proposes an on-site compact plant that prints cement-and-excavated-earth mixtures into functional, structural elements. The result is no outbound trucks, no landfill fees, no schedule drag, and a direct path to truly circular construction."

Scaling Up with TMU's Innovation Boost Zone

With support from the Innovation Boost Zone (IBZ), Mahin aims to develop a full-scale prototype:
"The IBZ provides a lot of resources that are incredibly helpful in pushing this idea and to scale any venture in general. They can provide hardware bay, mentorship, and industry contacts to help fine-tune ideas and do secondary market research. I hope they can aid in building a full-scale prototype to eventually line up terraLoop's first pilot with a general contractor; which is very critical for proving terraLoop's commercial viability."

A Vision for Zero-Waste Construction

Mahin envisions a radical shift in construction practices:
"I think sustainable construction will eventually evolve into a true circular ecosystem where every building is conceived as a temporary assembly of resources (ie. not a fixed monument) and can be reconfigured, reused, or returned to the earth with minimal waste."

He emphasizes the need for practical implementation:
"Europe's early take on this shows how policy pressure and tighter producer-responsibility laws can prove a faster adoption. I think its important that DfD escapes the academic framework and on-the-ground practice by documenting full-scale pilot projects, publishing and sharing clear metrics for the 'degree of disassembly'."