Brick-work
We
choose to work in a way that combines research and building.
Believing that buildings should emerge from conscious and artistic
ideas as much as programmatic rationale, we steer our research
into the development of ideas. Our research comes from many sources;
by
observing the everyday, studying the work of great (and often old)
men and engaging with the work of certain artists. This is then
formalised through writing, teaching and competition work. It
feels like a natural process that this research may run in parallel
to the servicing of a brief from a client just as it may be linked
to the programmatic
need or budget-led expediency of a current project. What we increasingly
observe however is that the ideas we are interested in relate to
the possibilities that construction can have on the presence and
meaning of space and place. As,
through our previous work, we have acknowledged the associative
power of form we have been increasingly drawn
towards the development
of the object in architecture and of its material presence.
This brings with it an emotional and intuitive content which emerges,
by way of association, from the image of the object and its
fabric.
We have found that the representation of buildings as conglomerates,
single entities composed of many elements and fragments, best
express these interests . The predominant material that
has led this research
in our studio has been brick. Living and working in London,
a city grounded on clay and built predominantly of brick,
it seems appropriate
to look much more carefully at this base material, one which
is embedded in our cultural memory. There
is nothing more elementary than brick. Humble in its substance,
easy to manufacture and used for centuries. Its
size governed by
the maximum comfortable object a hand can hold or lift repetitively,
its length around twice its width to ensure an effective bond.
It would seem that there is nothing simpler than a brick and
yet, there
is also nothing more complex. As while the simplicity of its
making and the infinite potential for combination through its
shape has
led to a universality of use, often in the most prosaic of
ways, it may also be experienced as a material of great
intensity,
loaded with meaning and emotional weight.
Over
time we have realised that this material intensity is most present
in vernacular construction, where use is
led by
expediency
and where an expression of its making is evident, or where
through creative thinking, material is abstracted to expose
its essence. In
this more conscious act, allegiance to rules of construction
or procedure are substituted for an artistic strategy where
the expression of surface overrides a functional dogma.
Within this
context we have
been developing ways, through the unorthodox use of an
orthodox material, in which we can reveal the essence of
brick and
achieve a renewed
and specific reality.
In
our first public building, a new Public House in Walsall (1997)
we were interested in the way the drinking hall may
be experienced as a re-appropriated space, like the surrounding
warehouses which
have an important place in the local memory of previous
industry. Walls of fletton bricks with flush joints and a painted
surface
line
two sides of the space The
constructional role of the brick changes from a composite loadbearing
collar wall around the service
areas, to a surface
facing around the perimeter. Whatever its role in construction
may be however,
its presence as a large rough surface is felt, giving
an outside quality to an inside space and the atmosphere
of
a place remembered. The
external faces of the building were clad in brick and concrete
materials chosen to give an equivalence
of colour and texture in
order to reinforce the volume of the whole rather than
the detail of each part. A wall of black brick on the
North elevation,
with
flush pigmented mortar is detailed to create a large,
flattened surface. Only the surface of the brick is
on view with
the thickness and edge
concealed at windows and corners. This
brick skin plays no structural role and is tied back to either
windposts or loadbearing blockwork
but
its overall
form
contributes
to an urban expression of continuity and looseness.
Through two competitions, we explored the possibilities
of brick as an overall surface. The intensity of
use contributed to the
abstraction of form where roof, walls, and floors
merge into
a single conglomerate.
The detailed adjustment of the material was then
governed by the 'all over' theme but articulated
quite differently
in each
project.
In
the Circle 33 Innovation in Housing competition in Bow, East
London (2001) we developed the brick
as a screen
of folded
surfaces.
By proposing a building of two courtyards with
clear thresholds between public and private we hoped to
give an appropriate
identity to housing
in the loosely defined urban situation of Bow. The
building fills the city block and anchors itself in the tradition
of industrial buildings
which still
exist nearby.
The
building volume
is shaped by the programme and by modelling with
falling rooflines which reflect the house-like
building forms
around it. The
external cladding of the building is a screen of pre-fabricated
resin backed brick
panels
hung
off structural
timber wall panels.
The articulation of the brick slips in a soldier
course bond, suggesting a fully bonded wall,
is counteracted by a larger
scale network
of open joints between panels in a staggered
arrangement. These open
joints, whose order is determined by the need
for fire
separation between apartments and floors, provide
ventilation behind
the fa∫ade
and facilitate a 'breathing wall' (or vapour
transfusive) construction. Details
at junctions are suppressed to give the material of brick an
autonomy from
technique.
Instead
what is
intensified is
the expression
of wrapping or perforated screen. In this
way, the illusory nature of the detailing shows
a perforated brick screen
from close-up
and yet from a distance walls become opaque
and heavy-weight.
The fabrication
of the wall regains its normality as it recedes
into the background of the city.
In
the Jewish Culture and Community Centre competition at St. Jakobs
Platz, Munich
(2000) a more monolithic
presence of
brick
was explored. The new buildings are treated
as a conglomerate form which
is tuned and adjusted to site conditions
and existing urban typologies. In
this way, it resembles the dense pattern of building in this
Medieval
quarter. The
buildings contain a variety
of volumes
and
functions, some of which are open to
the sky or are
underground, some very public and specific
in function, others more
informal and loose in their use. The
central volume, containing the synagogue, rises above the other
buildings
on the site,
to assert an
urban presence
that is
equivalent to other civic, religious
and commercial buildings in the city. All the new buildings are clad
in brick. Sandy in colour and soft
in texture,
with
joints which
are variously
open
or closed,
the bricks become more like aggregate
within a conglomerate structure than
distinct,
stacked masonry
units. The
shifts in meaning that
this approach to detailing achieves,
between an expression of weight to
that of lightness
and transparency,
is particularly relevant
in the tower building. In
response to the lack of representation in synagogue imagery,
the building
has instead a multifarious
identity,
engaging with
utilitarian, commercial and middle
eastern sources that already influence
the
city and give it its identity.
A
modest extension to a villa in Islington, North London (2000),
as
part of a refurbishment
of the
original house,
became an opportunity
to explore and realise the use
of an overall brick cladding.
Built at the
same time
of the Munich
competition, we
used the project
as a built prototype of the Cultural
Centre. External walls, roof
and external ground are from a continuous
surface of brick. A regularly shaped brown-black
engineering brick was chosen
and the pointing was
not raked or trowelled
but
'bagged off',
crudely wiped with a sack,
causing the bricks to be smeared. A heavyweight construction
was adopted, using brick
cavity walls
and brick slips
as roof ballast
on a concrete
structure.
The direct, seemingly self-evident
way the building is presented,
as an object,
was
an attempt to
refrain from
any interruption
of the overall form by small
parts. Functional
and technical requirements demanded by
the brief or good building
practice, like
the control of expansion,
were
detailed
to be suppressed from view
in favour of the whole.
Each join or change in surface
and
material is there in order
to
reinforce
the
quiet
presence of the little
building. The
result is a highly controlled and abstract
building form which
expresses little of its
making but an overriding
sense
of material presence.
The ambiguous nature
of the wall, as both
screen
and
heavy-weight enclosure,
previously explored
in the
Circle 33 competition,
was realised in an affordable
housing project in Hackney. The building structure
was conceived of as
a shell, or empty
wooden box
providing simple
floorplates with
a central
internal
loadbearing division
and made by stacking
up prefabricated
timber
wall panels
with floor panels stiffening
the box at each level. The
brick façade is conceived as a weighty overcoat to
the wooden shell,
which gives a formal and urban character to the building. This
is further emphasised by the
slightly distorted
form given
by the
geometry of
the site which
has the effect of exaggerating
the cubic sense
of the volume. A
hard brown/black engineering brick
was chosen, with
flush
mortar joints
pigmented to
match the brick. At ground
and lower
ground level
this is replaced
with a light
calcium silicate
brick which
identifies
the extent of
the ownership
within
and increases
light reflectance
on the lower
floors. The
dark brick reflects
the
tradition of
tarring bricks which
was intended
to counteract poor
firing techniques
by achieving
a more
continuous surface.
The lighter
brick reflects
the tradition
of the
white stucco
rusticated base. Across
the surface of
the brick walls
a net of
open perpends
are
laid out with
their
own
grid of
90cm horizontal
and 75cm
vertical centres. This
layout of vertical
slots which
increase
ventilation
to
the cavity
behind and
is co-ordinated
with passive
ventilation
inlet
valves located
within the
timber structure,
visibly
undermine
the expression
of the wall
as
a monolithic
element but
instead suggest
a perforate
surface integrated
with
the construction
behind.
In
a recent
competition for an Industrial
Design
Department in Kortrijk,
Flanders
(2004),
we explored
the potential
in a fully
precast
system of brick
clad beams
and columns.
The
two buildings
proposed,
one housing
offices
the other
studios,
have a
similar architectural
character. The
facades
are multi-layered
combining
a repetitive,
brick
open-framed structure
with
an inner layer
of timber
and glass.
These
two facades
are treated
as autonomous
elements.
Each
defines a
spatial
character
in such
a
way that
they
may separately
articulate
the conditions
of the
outside
and inside.
When
seen
complete,
a highly
articulated
fa∫ade
is achieved. The
'inner'
timber
surface
provides
a location
for
services extracts
to
be located,
thereby
liberating
the
design of
windows
to
form large
areas
of
plate glass
and
the brick
surfaces
to
be free
of
protrusions
and
added elements. The
use
of
brick
engages
with
both
the
cultural
heritage
of
Flemish
architecture
and
the
universal
status
of
the
material.
The
precast
brick
clad
beams
and
columns,
forming
the
North
and
South
elevations
with
large
repeated
openings,
have
a
lime/cement mortar
which
is
flush
with
the
brick. The
more
closed East
and West
elevations, with
large surfaces
of wall
and selected
'punched' openings,
have a
wide and
recessed mortar
joint giving
a rich
surface texture
when viewed
in morning
and evening
light.
In
a
current project
in the
East End
of London
(2004), we
are proposing
a form
that is
ambiguous in
terms of
its origins;
it can
be read
as both
urban house
and simple
industrial shed. The
concept
was generated
by the
complex requirements
of the
brief with
four different
programmes; two
apartments, a
studio for
an artist
and a
space for
a joint
therapy practice.
Like the
industrial buildings
adjacent to
it, which
have been
re-appropriated over
time, the
external appearance
of the
new building
does not
immediately announce
its purpose. The
timber
framed structure
allows for
a variety
of spatial
volumes to
be achieved
within the
simple overall
form of
the building.
External claddings
and windows
are detailed
as added
layers to
the frame
and become
visible by
the misalignment
of structure
and cladding
and the
use of
semi-reflective glass
that cover
solid and
void alike. The
brick
skin forming
most of
the building
envelope is
detailed as
a coarse
wrapping with
a mortar
slurry washed
over the
surface. When
complete, this
should have
the effect
of an
overall surface
in which
is visible
only as
a faint
watermark of
brick. We
believe
that through
this handling,
the building
will find
its character
in a
manner which
is continuous
with that
of its
context 'as
found'.
A
competition
for the
Cultural History
museum at
Rønne,
on the island of Bornholms, Denmark (2003), represents
an important threshold within the development of our ideas
of conglomerate structures
as we have sought to integrate more fully, claddings
and linings with structure and servicing. The
re-organised
museum is
seen as
an assembly
of buildings,
which reflects
the character
of the
town with
its clusters
of buildings
around open
courtyards. In
this case,
the new
and retained
buildings form
an identifiable
settlement. The
architecture
is reconciliatory
and integrative,
reflecting as
it does
known forms
reminiscent of
smokehouses and
round-churches
and
adjusting itself
in accordance
with the
scale of
streets and
houses close
to it. The
volumetric
bearing of
the new
building within
the townscape
is self
confident and
and its'
material presence,
with large
surfaces of
leaning brickwork,
imparts great
rigour with
an air
of durability
and quality. The
brickwork
is continuous
and monolithic
in its
presence
with
joints which
are exaggerated
by the
wash of
slurry over
the surface.
In parts
the brickwork
is stretched
to form
an open
pattern, increasing
ventilation
into
the cavity
behind it.
Large openings
in the
body of
the building
with deeply
angled reveals
and fenestration,
give the
building
the
public character
it warrants. A
double
skin construction
is proposed
with an
outer skin
of self
supporting
brickwork
detailed
as
a rainscreen
on the
walls and
as ballast
on the
roofs and
an inner
structure
of
solid brickwork
with keystone reinforcement
spanning
between ridge
beams and
concrete
ring
beams. The roofs
form a
series
of
interconnected
vaults,
running
across
the east-west axis,
springing
from double
skin walls.
The
varied
set
of
spaces
inside
are
encased
by this
enveloping
mass
of brick which
is
ever
present. Heating
and
ventilation
is
incorporated
within
the brickwork
construction
with
the cavity
acting as
a plenum.
Warm air
is circulated
and then
exhausted
through
a pattern
of open
perpendicular
joints
and through
open slots at window
cills.
This
creates a
low energy
heating
system
like a
Roman hypercaust. These
projects
lie outside
the usual
tenets
of
Modernism
as
they question
its dogmas
of truth
and honesty
and allegiance
to form
and function
by manipulating
the potential
of construction
to express
ideas of
surface intensity
and of
making.
The
expression
of
brick construction
is neither
wholly consistent
nor complete
and it
often denies
the expression
of the
way that
the forces
of gravity
operate.
Construction
becomes an
artistic
strategy
that may
enhance the
experience
of
the building,
reinforce
the
meaning
in
its use
and provide
a memorable
tectonic. This
work
gains inspiration
from the
humanist
architecture
of the
1960's in
Britain
and
Scandinavia,
as
well as
a more
contemporary
interest
in working
with images
(inspired
by
contemporary
art
and the
romantic art
of Gottfried Semper).
As
an expression
of primitivism,
these walls
that we
make, represent
the work
of hands,
they seek
to be
an architecture
of ideas
where decisions
go beyond
an expression
of the
building process
but extend
to make
connections with
deep seated
emotion
and
memory in
an ever
ambitious
attempt
to express
meaning.
|
Sigurd Lewerentz
Halifax
walled garden 
Sigurd Lewerentz
Pub in Walsall
Pub in Walsall
Munich competition
Belitha Villas
Shepherds walk
Kortijk
Kortijk
Coate street 
Coate street
Bornholm
Bornholm
Bornholm