Long-distance bulk transport of bricks and other construction equipment remained prohibitively expensive until the development of modern transportation infrastructure, with the construction of canal, roads, and railways. In Lübeck, for example, Brick Renaissance is clearly recognisable in buildings equipped with terracotta reliefs by the artist Statius von Düren, who was also active at Schwerin ( Schwerin Castle) and Wismar (Fürstenhof). A clear distinction between the two styles only developed at the transition to Baroque architecture. This style evolved into Brick Renaissance as the stylistic changes associated with the Italian Renaissance spread to northern Europe, leading to the adoption of Renaissance elements into brick building. Examples of this architectural style can be found in modern-day Denmark, Germany, Poland, and Kaliningrad (former East Prussia). An independent style of brick architecture, known as brick Gothic (similar to Gothic architecture) flourished in places that lacked indigenous sources of rocks. The Roman legions operated mobile kilns, and built large brick structures throughout the Roman Empire, stamping the bricks with the seal of the legion.ĭuring the Early Middle Ages the use of bricks in construction became popular in Northern Europe, after being introduced there from Northern-Western Italy. Malbork Castle of the Teutonic Order in Poland – the largest brick castle in the worldĮarly civilisations around the Mediterranean adopted the use of fired bricks, including the Ancient Greeks and Romans. To anonymous labourers fell the less skilled stages of brick production: mixing clay and water, driving oxen over the mixture to trample it into a thick paste, scooping the paste into standardised wooden frames (to produce a brick roughly 42 cm long, 20 cm wide, and 10 cm thick), smoothing the surfaces with a wire-strung bow, removing them from the frames, printing the fronts and backs with stamps that indicated where the bricks came from and who made them, loading the kilns with fuel (likelier wood than coal), stacking the bricks in the kiln, removing them to cool while the kilns were still hot, and bundling them into pallets for transportation. He also had to know when to quench the kiln with water so as to produce the surface glaze. the kilnmaster had to make sure that the temperature inside the kiln stayed at a level that caused the clay to shimmer with the colour of molten gold or silver. Using the 17th-century encyclopaedic text Tiangong Kaiwu, historian Timothy Brook outlined the brick production process of Ming Dynasty China:
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The carpenter's manual Yingzao Fashi, published in 1103 at the time of the Song dynasty described the brick making process and glazing techniques then in use. The oldest extant brick building above ground is possibly Songyue Pagoda, dated to 523 AD. Proper brick construction, for erecting walls and vaults, finally emerges in the 3rd century BC, when baked bricks of regular shape began to be employed for vaulting underground tombs. For the longest time builders relied on wood, mud and rammed earth, while fired brick and mud-brick played no structural role in architecture. The use of ceramic pieces for protecting and decorating floors and walls dates back at various cultural sites to 3000-2000 BC and perhaps even before, but these elements should be rather qualified as tiles. The brickwork of Shebeli Tower in Iran displays 12th-century craftsmanship China Air-dried bricks, also known as mudbricks, have a history older than fired bricks, and have an additional ingredient of a mechanical binder such as straw.īricks are laid in courses and numerous patterns known as bonds, collectively known as brickwork, and may be laid in various kinds of mortar to hold the bricks together to make a durable structure. Lightweight bricks (also called lightweight blocks) are made from expanded clay aggregate.įired bricks are one of the longest-lasting and strongest building materials, sometimes referred to as artificial stone, and have been used since circa 4000 BC. Bricks are produced in numerous classes, types, materials, and sizes which vary with region and time period, and are produced in bulk quantities.īlock is a similar term referring to a rectangular building unit composed of similar materials, but is usually larger than a brick.
Bricks can be joined using mortar, adhesives or by interlocking them. Properly, the term brick denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured construction blocks. An old brick wall in English bond laid with alternating courses of headers and stretchersĪ brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction.
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