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Masonry: The Latest Architecture and News

Breaking Ground: "Soil Sisters" and SOM Foundation Pioneer Green Architectural Innovation

The “Soil Sisters” initiative explores how architectural design and sustainable material practices can contribute to soil nutrition and resilience. Partnering with SOM Foundation, their joint effort has resulted in an exhibition aiming to redefine our understanding of “environmentally conscious practices.” Titled “Soil Sisters: A Ceiling, A Chair and Table, A Wall and a Threshold,” the display showcases their dedication to redefining soil health as a cross-sectoral objective by emphasizing materiality and color in the built environment.

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Thin Brick in Building Design: A Guide to Their Use and Application

Brick is a traditional building material that enhances durability, versatility, and the aesthetic appeal of building design. Used in construction for thousands of years, contemporary architecture explores creative ways to incorporate brick into design, combining it with different materials to seamlessly integrate the old and the new. Traditionally composed of clay, these rectangular-shaped elements are also heavy-duty materials suitable for use in both load-bearing and non-load-bearing walls.

Delving into lighter alternatives, thin brick –with minimum thicknesses of approximately 1/2 inch (13mm)– combines the technical and aesthetic qualities of traditional brick with the advantages of being lightweight and space-efficient. In various colors, sizes, and textures, thin brick can be applied to diverse surfaces, such as walls and facades, without additional structures. The Brick Industry Association showcases interior and exterior projects, developing practical guides and solutions for achieving the classic, timeless look of brick masonry, along with design flexibility and easy installation.

Mario Botta's Residenza Cittadella Captured by Paul Clemence in Lugano, Switzerland

In the center of the city of Lugano, Switzerland, architect Mario Botta has designed a new housing solution on the foundations of the former Cinema Teatro Cittadella. Captured by Paul Clemence, this photo series displays the new residence in a city rich with an artistic and cultural past. The residential complex is located near the ancient basilica of the Sacred Heart of Lugano, nestled in a quiet area away from city traffic.

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From Stone Walls to Skyscrapers: Understanding Structural Masonry

The Monadnock Building in Chicago began construction in 1891 and is still in use today. The building features a somber facade without ornamentation and a colossal height - at the time - of 16 floors. It is considered the first skyscraper built in structural masonry, with ceramic bricks and a granite base. To support the entire load of the building, the structural walls on the ground floor are 1.8 meters thick, and at the top, 46 centimeters. One hundred and thirty years later, this construction system remains common and allows for the erection of taller buildings with much thinner walls, accomplishing even new architectural works economically and rationally. But what is structural masonry about, and how can designers use it in architectural projects? And for what kinds of buildings is this system most suitable?

Using Waterstruck Bricks as a Design Feature

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Identified as small rectangular blocks made of fired or sun-dried clay, bricks have traditionally been used for building pavements, walls and other elements of masonry construction. Laid in courses or rows and joined together with mortar, bricks are known for their strong structural strength and durability. But beyond their basic functional purposes, their multiple patterns, sizes and shapes allow for a distinctive aesthetic with an infinite design versatility, becoming a design feature themselves. Showcasing an example of aesthetic brickwork, we will take a closer look of Villa Peer, an architecture project in Belgium that uses Randers Tegl’s long format waterstruck bricks as the main design feature for the whole building’s facade.

10 Iconic Buildings that Changed Our Perception of Raw Materials

The history of architecture shows that the use of raw materials has always been somewhat common, whether in ancient vernacular techniques or within the Brutalist movement, to name a few. It is evident that the language of a project is often linked to its material, as various sensations and the perception of space are directed by the aesthetic and physical quality of the given element. For this reason, we have gathered ten buildings that highlight the quality of their materials, whether to make a statement, reinterpret a technique from the past, or to re-signify the potency of some of these elements.

Structural Masonry: How It Works and When to Use It

Briefly, structural masonry is a construction system in which the walls of the building perform a structural function, using masonry units arranged in a way that is self-supporting and load-bearing. The walls will evenly distribute the load to the foundation and later into the ground.

Stacked in layers, the bricks, blocks, or stones may or may not be connected by a binder (mortar) and steel reinforcements that heavily influence the mechanical properties of the wall, dimensioned to resist active forces.

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The Colors of Brick

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Brick is one of the most popular materials for architects designing with a vintage or rustic aesthetic: exposed brick walls are often touted as highly desirable for apartments, restaurants, and stores, and exterior brick facades can make a building or home feel warmer and more inviting. However, the color and cut of the brick can greatly influence the atmosphere it emanates, with white brick lending itself to more minimalist design and tan brick tending to feel more rustic and earthy. In this article, we will explore some of the most popular brick colors, ways to artificially color brick, and recent projects that use brick facades or interior brick elements effectively.

Brick by Brick: Rethinking Masonry Construction in Iran

Iran’s architecture has long been rooted in Persian culture. From tea houses and pavilions to domestic huts and elaborate mosques, the country’s built environment is tied to these influences, as well as the landscape and its broader context. At the heart of Iran’s more recent projects is a desire to reinterpret history through new spaces and forms.

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This Brick Arch Installation Dissolves in the Rain to Leave a Mortar Skeleton

Sometimes known as the “Island of the Gods,” Jeju Island in South Korea is characterized by its volcanic rock, stunning waterfalls, and warm, tropical climate. Here, life is integrated with nature and the architecture is in harmony with the landscape. Dissolving Arch, a weather-specific installation by stpmj, responds to the island’s tropical environment. The structure began life as a solid brick vault, which then slowly dissolved in the hot and rainy periods of Jeju to produce a light, porous skeleton made of the remaining mortar which connects people with nature.

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House in Serra do Cipó / TETRO Arquitetura + Humberto Hermeto Arquitetura

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  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  4370 ft²
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2018
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Aludesign, Artpedras, Esmad, Marcenaria Conceito / Florense / Cook Cozinhas, Neder Coberturas, +5

Hakka Indenture Museum / DnA

Hakka Indenture Museum / DnA - Museum, Door, Facade
© Ziling Wang

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Lishui, China
  • Architects: DnA
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  2574
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2017

Boarding House for an Agricultural School / Technical University of Berlin / CODE Chair Construction + Design - Ralf Pasel

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Quillacollo, Bolivia

Henley Halebrown Releases New Images of Mixed Use School in London

Henley Halebrown has released updates for their proposed mixed-use scheme in Hackney, London. 333 Kingland Road, previously occupied by a fire station, will soon be home to the Hackney New Primary School, commercial units, and dual aspect apartments. The scheme aims to address a need for school places and homes in London and to maintain a connection between learning and living in a dense urban environment.

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This Onsite Pop-up Plant Turns Excavation Waste into Building Material

Excavation is usually a bane for real estate developers. To make way for new buildings, truckloads of excavated waste are removed from site in a noisy, time-consuming and gas-guzzling process. Exploring a more sustainable solution, the California-based company Watershed Materials have developed an onsite pop-up plant which repurposes excavated material right at the job site to create concrete masonry units (CMUs) used in the development. By eliminating truck traffic, reusing waste and reducing imported materials, the result is a win for the environment.

New Construction Robot Lays Bricks 3 Times as Fast as Human Workers

A new construction worker has been lending high-efficiency help to job sites, laying bricks at almost three times the speed of a human worker. SAM (short for Semi-Automated Mason) is a robotic bricklayer that handles the repetitive tasks of basic brick laying, MIT Technology Review reports. While SAM handles picking up bricks, applying mortar and placing them at designated locations, its human partner handles worksite setup, laying bricks in specific areas (e.g. corners) and improving the aesthetic quality of the masonry.

Watershed Materials Hopes to Make Cement-Free Concrete Blocks a Reality

Concrete blocks. Ever since manufacturers developed techniques to make them cheaper than traditional clay-fired bricks, concrete blocks have been one of our most ubiquitous construction materials. However, this ubiquity comes at a price: worldwide, the production of concrete accounts for around 5% of all man-made carbon dioxide emissions, and concrete blocks (as opposed to in-situ concrete or concrete panels) contributes a significant portion of these emissions.

To curb these runaway carbon emissions, a California-based company called Watershed Materials is developing alternatives to the traditional concrete block which uses less cement, dramatically reducing the amount of carbon dioxide produced; they even have a product in the works which they hope will offer a widely applicable concrete block alternative which uses no cement at all.

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This New Brick by MIT-Researchers Uses Little Energy and Helps Deplete Landfills

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Traditional Red Bricks. Image Courtesy of MIT Tata Center

India has one of the fastest growing populations in the world and to accommodate it, a better building material is needed. Currently over 200 billion of the country’s traditional clay fired bricks are manufactured every year, resulting in numerous pollution and environmental problems. To address these issues, a team from MIT –- composed of students Michael Laracy and Thomas Poinot, along with professors Elsa Olivetti, Hamlin Jennings and John Ochsendorf -- has developed Eco-BLAC bricks: an alternative to traditional bricks that reuses industrial waste and is low-cost and low energy.

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