Bauxite residue, or ‘red mud’, is the caustic by-product left when alumina is extracted from bauxite ore: more than 150 million tons a year, piling onto stockpiles already estimated above four billion tons. Amsterdam-based Studio ThusThat has been turning it into slender ceramic vessels and experimental building materials whose deep earthy reds read like traditional terracotta, a world away from the red lagoons the material comes from. It’s a quietly radical proposition: treat one of industry’s most ignored waste streams as a raw material rather than a liability. Source: designboom