-
Architects: Brooks + Scarpa, Studio Dwell Architects
- Area: 2800 ft²
-
Photographs:Marty Peters
-
Manufacturers: APOC, Accurate Metal Chicago, Anemostat, Chicago Common Brick, Del Rey, Fleetwood, Forest Stewardship Council, Milgard, Nationwide Industries, PPG IdeaScapes, T.M. Cobb, Timely Industries, US Aluminum Corporation, Weyerhaeuser
Text description provided by the architects. Located within a few blocks of the campus of Northwestern University in the suburbs of Chicago, this modest sized courtyard house is wrapped almost entirely in brick. Chicago “Common” brick, as it is known, was chosen because they look different from typical red bricks - a result of the geological composition of the indigenous Lake Michigan clay and the way in which it is fired. It’s variegations and irregularities made “Common” bricks unattractive, cheap and an abundant resource—a prosaic building material used in places generally obscured from the street such as side and back walls, chimney flues, and structural support behind facades.
