Long the staple of construction, the brick no longer needs to be mundane, with new and novel twists from glazed to knitted…
The brick or block, usually created from fired clay, is one of the most tried and tested materials in design and construction. Physically inert and visually anything but, the brick has been the populist choice as a building material for centuries. While brick are high in embodied energy yet they also have thermal mass, are resilient to nature’s weather tantrums and have an excellent lifecycle performance.
As we move away from the standardisation that has gripped us for so long, bricks and blocks are undergoing a renaissance. This is indiscriminate; innovation seizes both the brick as a structural element and as decorative face.
Traditionally, the brick separates architecture from sculpture by the way it grounds a building. And just like in the Three Little Pigs, it’s hard to go wrong with these sturdy little fellows.
This month’s material melange challenges both the notion of the brick as grounding or sturdy and puts the case for a few more unusual options, from unfired load-bearing bricks to knitted ones…
Words: Annabelle Filer
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| FX, Jan 2010 |
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