Another brick in the wall
The Dr Chau Chak Wing Building at University Technology, Sydney, was designed by Gehry Partners. Using a brick veneer, it achieves an incredible fluidity of form and texture.
UTS building, Gehry Partners. The building has already raised the profile of the highly skilled bricklayers who laid 320,000 bricks by hand, following a 3D construction model.
Woodridge House, England by Tompkins Rygole. Referencing local heritage, the façades and walled garden are faced in Flemish-bonded handmade bricks.
Woodridge House. The local handmade Michelmarsh bricks are laid in a traditional pattern that creates character and harmony at once.
Ari Apartments by Ola Studio, Melbourne. The black bricks of this mixed-use building create perforated patterns to provide privacy and introduce natural light into the interior.
Ari Apartments. This contemporary “ode to brick” is built in Hawthorn East in Melbourne and reflects and honours the neighbourhood’s industrial brick-making past.
Lake Hawea Courtyard House, Otago by Glamuzina Paterson. Responding to historical precedents, the use of brick and the low singular form anchors the house firmly to its site.
Lake Hawea Courtyard House. The use of ‘seconds bricks’ laid randomly encourages texture that complements the surrounding natural landscape.
The Green community centre by AOC in England features a textured, herringbone patterned façade, that references and complements a neighbouring mock-Tudor pub.
The Green community centre. The modern addition to the neighbourhood also takes cues from nearby Victorian terraced housing for its red brick construction.
Abstract Tower by Monadnock in Nieuw-Bergen, the Netherlands. This viewing tower is made with a variety of brickwork techniques alongside contrasting tones of red and green.
Abstract Tower, the Netherlands. A two-tone effect has been created, with most of the red clay bricks coated with a cement wash that gives them a pale mint-green colour.
Experimental brick pavilion by Estudio Botteri-Connell, Argentina. Constructed from 55 whole and 22 half alternating bricks that are supported without mortar inside a steel frame.
Experimental brick pavilion, Argentina. The brick panels are moveable and allow for an ever-changing filter of light while also maintaining privacy for the occupants.
Sala Ayutthaya by Onion, Thailand. The passageways of this boutique hotel are made from scalloped tall red brick walls that mask views of the neighbouring temple and old city.
Sala Ayutthaya, Thailand. Transient curved shadows are created throughout the day by the fluted passageway, that was designed for both the shadows and to frame views of the sky.
Health Education Centre by Ross Langdon + Studio FH Architects, Uganda. This inward-looking structure is made from basic materials including clay brick infills and clay tile floors.
Health Education Centre, Uganda. There are no windows, instead light filters through perforations in the brickwork, a gap between the roof and the walls, and through skylights.
Courtyard House by Dallas Pierce Quintero in London. Built on a tiny infill plot, this home features dark, almost-blue brick, that forms unusual vertical stripes.
Courtyard House, London. Angled bricks create three-dimensional zigzags across the walls, creating texture and contrasting normal horizontal brickwork.
The Katamama hotel in Bali by Andra Matin showcases local craftsmanship and design, with multi-hued Balinese bricks and handmade tiles featuring strongly.
Katamama hotel, Bali. Brick, often left exposed where possible, dominates much of the interior, and balconies feature perforated brick screens.
Crystal Houses Amsterdam by MVRDV. In a world-first, this innovative façade features transparent glass bricks, to better suit the building’s use as a Chanel boutique.
Crystal Houses Amsterdam. To create the illusion of a dissolving wall, the glass elements merge with the original terracotta brickwork towards the upper storeys of the building.
Zen House by H.A, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. The apartment was built for Buddhist monks and features a natural palette of dark unrefined brick, bare wood, unpainted cemboard and more.
Zen House, Ho Chi Minh. Light enters the house through small windows built into the brick wall that creates shadow patterns and brings a sense of peaceful sanctuary.
LSE Saw Hock Student Centre, London by O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects. The brick patterning allows the building to be seen at night from the streets like a glowing lattice lantern.
LSE Saw Hock Student Centre. Brick is used in a new way here, each offset from the next and wrapping the walls in a permeable blanket that will create changing, dappled daylight.
Little Brick Studio by MAKE Architecture, Melbourne. The textured brick finish of this studio was inspired by nearby brick factories, with its bond developed by the practice.
Little Brick Studio, Melbourne. Bricks protrude out by 90mm and slowly disappear into the wall, corners are carefully considered and brick cutting was minimised where possible.
“Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.” – Mies van der Rohe, 1959.
An ancient construction material, brick was first used at least 6,000 years ago in a sun-dried, mud form, the forerunner of a wide range of structural clay products used today. The Great Wall of China (210BC) was built of both fired and sun-dried bricks, and in western Europe bricks have been used in construction for centuries, where, until recently, it was the foremost material that homes were built from.
The original concept behind the rectangular block is that it would not be larger than one man could handle on his own. Today, bricks come in an extensive range of sizes and shapes, including bullnose, channel, coping, cownose and hollow bricks to name a few. Every one of these has an unique function and characteristic. While the common burnt clay brick is the most popular and widespread, other materials for bricks include sand lime, concrete, fly ash clay and, more recently, glass.
One of the first innovators to use this fundamental material in a ground breaking fashion was Uruguayan engineer and architect Eladio Dieste (1917 –2000). His famous Atlantida church is a magnificent example of the use of brick that combines two of Dieste’s greatest structural inventions: the Gaussian vault and the vertical ruled surface. Instead of concentrating on the creative use of concrete like many other modernist architects at the time, Dieste focused on using brick and ceramic tile to create elegant and strong structures that were also considerably cheaper than reinforced concrete.
The application of brick for creative architectural purposes has only increased with time. While the use of timber as a building material has become increasingly popular, the design flexibility of brick and its many benefits ensure that the material continues to be specified for a broad range of functions and projects.
Today, there is a diverse range of aesthetic effects that the designer or architect can create with brick. Various colours, textures, patterning, perforations, curvature and finishes are all readily available. Aside from pure design considerations, brick has an exceptionally long life cycle, is strong, durable and resistant to extreme weather. Bricks can help regulate and maintain constant interior temperatures of a structure due to their ability to absorb and slowly release heat.
Despite brick often getting a bad reputation as having an ‘unsustainable’ method of production through the energy-intensive firing process that leaves behind a high carbon footprint, it’s important to note that sustainability also extends to the life cycle performance, maintenance, durability and recyclability of buildings.
The UK Brick Development Association notes: “Research recently undertaken demonstrates that the proportion of embodied energy of clay bricks for the modern semi-detached home is equal to just 1.87% of the overall heating requirement for the home over its 150 year life.” Brick can also be easily salvaged and reused in new projects and recycled for use in other bricks or other building materials.
Glamuzina Paterson Architects decided to use brick ‘seconds’ for their Lake Hawea Courtyard House in Otago. Aaron Paterson comments, ”The choice to wrap the façade of the courtyard house in seconds bricks laid randomly came from the desire to create a building whose texture complemented the outstanding natural landscape. The local bricklayers thought we were crazy for moving away from a traditional stretcher bond pattern, but even they had to admit that the pitted rusticated surface provided a stunning canvas to constantly reveal the shifting play of light and shadow.”
See the slideshow above and images below for a roundup of fifteen interesting and innovative projects from around the world that have made this ancient material the highlight of their design.
