Majd Mashharawi saw her city crumble to war and being a civil engineer, started thinking of ideas to rebuild her city in an efficient way keeping in mind the obvious lack of materials. 

With the help of her friend Rawan Abdullatif she was able to make Green Cake; an environmentally friendly, low-cost, heat-resistant, sound-proof brick made out of the very ashes recycled from Gaza’s debris. Gaza produces around 60 million tons of ash per year which is enough to meet the daily demand for building blocks.

Green Cake makes use of coal and wood ash as filler material instead of the usual sand and aggregate. This brick which is the result of more than one year of experimenting is stronger than an ordinary brick, yet half the weight and price.

Due to the  decade-long Israeli-Egyptian siege of Gaza, many materials deemed "dual-use" had been banned from entering the Palestinian territory, or are allowed only in limited quantities. There was a severe shortage of cement which being a major component of construction proved to be an impediment to rebuild homes.

So far, Gaza has received only a third of the cement required for reconstruction, and only 20 percent of the destroyed housing units have been rebuilt. 

Mashharawi started searching for an alternative and struck upon ash which was present in her country in large quantities and could pose an environmental hazard. She decided to use this ash to make bricks and after a series of experiments and research finally succeeded in making Green Cake, the environment friendly brick which is tough and strong and at the same time very light.