© Trieu Chien
As a durable and natural building material, brickwork is enjoying something of a renaissance at present. For a long time, it had lost much of its former prestige and took a back seat behind concrete and composite thermal insulation systems. Today, however, the properties of brickwork are being rediscovered. From a functional point of view, the hard-wearing qualities, robustness and fire resistance of this traditional building material speak in its favour. What is more, its small-scale structure has always been a fascinating feature. Bricks are easily handled, and with their slight irregularities and varying colours, they conjure a sense of liveliness and a special haptic quality when laid.
The design scope they offer seems almost inexhaustible. The range of colours associated with bricks – resulting from the clay or loam that is used and the nature and duration of the firing process – ranges from white and beige through all kinds of ochre, red and brown tones, to grey and black. In addition, the colour and nature of the joints play an important role in the appearance of brickwork, as do the size and form of the individual blocks and the bond.
Over the past decade in particular, numerous buildings have been erected that are distinguished by the creative design of their brick facades. The fact that they should have a solidly built, powerful appearance seems to be an unwritten law. Nevertheless, brick facades rarely have a load-bearing function nowadays. For the most part, they are curtain-wall forms of construction that, separated by a layer of insulation, are fixed to a structural element at the rear. The question arises, therefore, why such buildings do not present themselves in what would be evident as a lightweight outer skin. The following examples show how brickwork can transform itself into a filigree form of construction that possesses its own surprisingly sensuous properties.
The design scope they offer seems almost inexhaustible. The range of colours associated with bricks – resulting from the clay or loam that is used and the nature and duration of the firing process – ranges from white and beige through all kinds of ochre, red and brown tones, to grey and black. In addition, the colour and nature of the joints play an important role in the appearance of brickwork, as do the size and form of the individual blocks and the bond.
Over the past decade in particular, numerous buildings have been erected that are distinguished by the creative design of their brick facades. The fact that they should have a solidly built, powerful appearance seems to be an unwritten law. Nevertheless, brick facades rarely have a load-bearing function nowadays. For the most part, they are curtain-wall forms of construction that, separated by a layer of insulation, are fixed to a structural element at the rear. The question arises, therefore, why such buildings do not present themselves in what would be evident as a lightweight outer skin. The following examples show how brickwork can transform itself into a filigree form of construction that possesses its own surprisingly sensuous properties.