brick bulletin...brick development association, the building centre, 26 store street, london, wc1e...

Four thought: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris profiled

Michael Graves’ museum of motoring in The Hague

Half century: Louis Kahn’s Indian Institute of Management

Niall McLaughlin’s Alzheimer’s Centre in Dublin

First Person: Mumbai’s iStudio and its Brick House

Overcladding in brick: Duggan Morris in detailSPRING 2011

BRICK

BULLETIN

The bigger pictureAn interest in materiality, sur-face and making draws archi-tect AHMM, profiled in thisissue, to brick. Halfway acrossthe world, iSTUDIO may wellbecome Mumbai’s AHMM, butfor now the young office iscompleting the Brick House, a homage to Indian pioneersLaurie Baker and Nari Gandhi.Not far away, Louis Kahn’smagnificent tour-de-force ofbrickwork at Ahmedabad iscelebrating its half century.Katherina Lewis

To find out more about the bricks or paversin featured projects, or to submit work, [email protected] or phone 020 7323 7030.

2 • BB SPRING 11 BB SPRING 11 • 3

Contents4 NEWS

Projects in London and Helsinki; First Person – Mumbai-based iSTUDIO.

6 PROJECTSKhosla Associates, Durbach Block JaggersArchitects, Michael Graves & Associates, Studio 54 Architecture, DVA Arhitekta,KCAP, Henley Halebrown Rorrison, Niall McLaughlin Architects.

14 PROFILESimon Allford and Paul Monaghan ofAHMM search for brick’s inner qualities.

18 PRECEDENTLouis Kahn’s Indian Institute ofManagement in Ahmedabad at 50.

23 TECHNICALBrick overcladding by Duggan Morris.

ContactsExecutive editor: Katherina Lewis t: 020 7323 7030 e: [email protected] Development Association, The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London, WC1E 7BT

The BDA represents manufacturers of clay brick and pavers in the UK and Ireland andpromotes excellence in the architectural, structural and landscape applications of brickand pavers. The BDA provides practical, technical and aesthetic advice and informationthrough its website www.brick.org.uk, in its numerous publications and over the phone.

ISSN 0307-9325 Published by the BDA ©2011 Editorial/design: Architecture Today plc

FrontispieceArts and Media Centre,The Doon School, DehraDun, India, by KhoslaAssociates (ph: BharathRamamrutham).

CoverChelsea Manor Street,London, by AHMM.

Back coverInternational BiophysicsInstitute, Hombroich,Germany, by ErwinHeerich, 2000 (ph: Seier + Seier).

BDA member companiesBlockleys Brick t +44 (0)1952 251933 www.blockleys.co.ukBovingdon Brickworks t +44 (0)1442 833176 www.bovingdonbricks.co.ukBroadmoor Brickworks t +44 (0)1594 822255 [email protected] Brick & Tile Co t +44 (0)1787 269 232 [email protected] Traditional Brick t +44 (0)1501 730671 www.caradale.co.ukCarlton Brick t +44 (0)1226 711521 www.carltonbrick.co.ukCharnwood Forest Brick t +44 (0)1509 503203 www.charnwoodforest.co.ukChartwell Brickworks t +44 (0)1732 463712 www.chartwellbrickworks.comColeford Brick & Tile t +44 (0)1594 822160 www.colefordbrick.co.ukDunton Brothers t +44 (0)1494 772111 www.duntonbros.co.ukFreshfield Lane Brickworks t +44 (0)1825 790350 www.freshfieldlane.co.ukFurness Brick & Tile Co t +44 (0)1229 462411 www.furnessbrick.comHanson UK t +44 (0)870 609 7092 www.hanson.com/ukHG Matthews t +44 (0)1494 758212 www.hgmatthews.comIbstock Brick t +44 (0)1530 261999 www.ibstock.co.ukKetley Brick t +44 (0)1384 78361 www.ketley-brick.co.ukLagan Brick t +353 (0)42 9667317 www.laganbrick.comMichelmersh Brick & Tile t +44 (0)1794 368506 www.michelmersh.co.ukAJ Mugridge t +44 (0)1952 586986 www.ajmugridge.co.ukNormanton Brick t +44 (0)1924 892142Northcot Brick t +44 (0)1386 700551 www.northcotbrick.co.ukOrmonde Brick t +353 (0)56 4441323 www.ormondebrick.iePhoenix Brick Company t +44 (0)1246 471576 www.bricksfromphoenix.co.ukWm C Reade of Aldeburgh t +44 (0)1728 452982 [email protected] Brick Co t +44 (0)1665 574229 [email protected] Brick t +44 (0)28 8772 3421 www.tyrone-brick.comThe York Handmade Brick Co t +44 (0)1347 838881 www.yorkhandmade.co.ukWH Collier t +44 (0)1206 210301 www.whcollier.co.ukWienerberger t +44 (0)161 4918200 www.wienerberger.co.uk

BRICK BULLETIN SPRING 2011

ARCHITECTURETODAY

BB SPRING 11 • 5

NEWS FIRST PERSON

Brick has a local and a poor man’s feel inany remote village in the mid-western stateof Maharashtra in India. How you play withit is the key to making it a modern man’searthy and vernacular home, writes iStudio.

The Brick House is a 2500 square footfarmhouse set in the hills among the ruralsettlements of Wada, 100 kilometres northof our office in Mumbai. We wanted thearchitecture to have an immediate impact,encouraging the viewer to make new obser-vations and not be complacent about thespaces they occupy. An individualistic pieceof architecture, the organic form emergesfrom the ground, following dips and peaks.Each space flows into another along curvedlines, and leading into a seamless space ofthe central courtyard. The visitor beginstheir journey along the curved jali brickwall, which offers tantalising glimpses of theinterior, drawing them into a dramatic com-position of light and shade.

The stark contrast of the stone entrancewall against the exposed brickwork drawsattention to the contrasting textures of bothmaterials. Entering the structure, one isgreeted by diffused sunlight falling on thecentral water basin that serves to cool thehouse. The interior space is dominated bytwo huge arches of brick and stone whichopen to give vistas of distant farms and hills.

The domestic spaces are zoned inresponse to climatic conditions and views,and level changes allow for differing viewsand a distinction between the living room,kitchen and dining space. This arrangementis unusual for an Indian household yet,because of its location, the kitchen becomesthe pivotal point of the household. A stonestaircase rises to the upper bedroom, con-nected by an open terrace. This volume ispositioned to the south-west to shade thecourtyard and keep the water basin cool.

The house is built with unadorned brick-work, which gives an earthy feel to the

Mixed-use scheme finds its niche

Niche Architects has obtained planning con-sent for a mixed-use scheme in London’s EastEnd. The four-storey building comprises fivecommercial units at ground and first floor levelwith apartments above. For the facades, engi-neering brick is combined with large recessedwindows which refer to nearby warehousesassociated with the area’s industrial past.

Three reasons why brick is best

The Brick Development Association haslaunched a comprehensive marketing campaign aimed at increasing the awareness ofthe benefits of using brick in UK constructionprojects. Continuing the successful Think Brick brand, the 2011 campaign will focus on three key propositions: brick is better forthe environment, brick is built to last, andbrick is low cost. The BDA has also launchedthis year’s Brick Awards. The closing date forentries is 17 June. Entry forms are availablefrom www.brick.org.uk/brickawards2011 or by emailing [email protected] or calling the BDA on 020 7323 7030.

Finland’s largest academic library

Won in competition, the University ofHelsinki City Campus Library by AnttinenOiva Architects is currently under construct-tion in the heart of Finland’s capital city. Dueto complete next year, the 11-storey buildingwill amalgamate five existing faculty libraries,and is characterised by a striking curved brickfacade. A dense fenestration grid blurs theinternal floor division, while terraced readinggalleries are revealed between large brickarches set into the main elevation.

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Above In designing the brick house, iStudio has beeninspired by both the philosophies and works of Laurie Bakerand Nari Gandhi. Each room flows into another, leading intoa seamless space held by the central courtyard. The solarpath, brick lattice jalis and arched openings help introducelight and wind into each space. Left (first/second photos) Birmingham-born LaurieBaker (1917-2007) worked as an anaesthetist during thesecond world war in China. His boat home was delayedin Bombay where he met Nari Gandhi and resolved toreturn. Emigrating in 1945 Baker first worked in UttarPradesh where he designed a number of leprosy institu-tions. In 1966, he moved south to Peerumede in Keralaand, in 1970, to Trivandrum where he settled, designingbuildings throughout Kerala. He worked for the Housing& Urban Development Corporation and set up theCentre of Science & Technology for Rural Development.Left (third/fourth photos) Nari Gandhi (1934-93) stud-ied architecture at Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbaiand apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin. Back in India, he developed Wright’s ideas of organicarchitecture and free-flowing space; working without anoffice and rarely making any drawings, he always engagedin the construction process.

spaces. The positions and sizes of openingsare dictated by climate to allow for daylight,cross ventilation and passive cooling.

We ordered an initial batch of bricksfrom the neighbouring state of Gujarat, butthen we discovered a local brick kiln thatcould produce well-finished good qualitybricks. Drawing inspiration from the British-born Indian architect Laurie Baker (1917-2007), we used techniques like rat-trapbonds for brickwork, filler slabs, brick jalis

(lattice screens) and built-in furniture. Therat-trap bond helps in reducing the amountof material used, as well as providing naturalinsulation and ready-made conduits for elec-trical work. The bricks are set on their threeinch face instead of the usual four inch side.The brick arches form large openings thatare consistent with the circular planning ofthe structure. Strategic use of jalis allowedfor cross ventilation without opening win-dows or shutters, a technique adopted from

Brick roads on a roll

A Dutch company could help revolutionisethe construction of brick and stone pavedroads – a hitherto time and labour intensiveprocess – with a device resembling a giantprinter. Made by Vanku, the Tiger-Stonepaving machine is fed loose bricks, which arepacked together and laid onto the road sur-face as the device moves along. Capable oflaying 300 square metres of road per day, themachine can be used for paths, bike lanesand carriageways up to six metres wide.

Based in Mumbai, iSTUDIO is a young office with a growing reputationfor experimentation and innovation.Eschewing a typological approach,iSTUDIO strives to respond to eachproject contextually, whether in terms of client or site requirements. ‘We believe that architecture has anessential impact on every aspect of society and must be used responsibly’,say partners Shriya Parasrampuria,Prashant Dupare and Amit Patil. ‘All partners have a background inalternative technologies and study of traditional methods and materials,and each contributes to the firm’s ideology and designs. Combining traditional methods of constructionwith technological innovation gives our structures a rootedness in the localcontext, yet manifests a contemporaryspirit in its interpretation.’

the age-old local traditions. These provenlow-cost eco-friendly technologies, thereduced requirement for steel and cement,use of local materials and avoiding plaster-ing, have allowed the house to be construct-ed for just £16,300.

When you understand brick, it allows forflexibility and experimentation, yet by itsvery nature, it gives solidity. Brick’s texturemakes the architecture feel close to nature,with a sense of earthiness, tradition and age.

BB SPRING 11 • 7 6 • BB SPRING 11

PROJECTS

Won in competition, the Arts and MediaCentre at The Doon School in Dehra Dun,north India, by Khosla Associates comprisestwo linked buildings housing studios, a lecturetheatre and exhibition spaces. Conceived as anartist’s journey of discovery, the two-storeybuilding is planned around a central double-height spine that runs east-west and encour-ages pupils to traverse, wander, turn andreflect. Projecting from the spine is a composi-tion of abstract sculptural forms rendered indifferent materials and colours. The internalspaces are north-lit using a series of skylights,while the studios open into a courtyard, ensur-ing good levels of natural ventilation and astrong link between inside and out.

Brick was chosen as the main external material to complement the predominantlymasonry architecture of the existing schoolcampus. Exposed brick tiles juxtaposed witholive-coloured corrugated metal sheets andglass are set against a spine of yellow slate.Curved corners soften the edge of the buildingand are detailed with bands of brick-on-edge.

Artistic ambition

A school arts and media centre byKhosla Associates makes use of boldmassing and sculptural forms.

Opposite below Ground and first floor plans.Credits Photos: Bharath Ramamrutham (main image,opposite far left), Amit Parischa.

The Garden House by Durbach Block JaggersArchitects is situated on a sloping site inBellevue Hill, an eastern suburb of Sydney,Australia. Hidden within the L-shaped plan isa garden court that bridges between the floorsand blurs the distinction between inside andoutside. The brick facade is given a fabric-likequality through its pattern, texture and treat-ment. Using rolled and recycled bricks, twomoves were incorporated into the brick laying.The first was to tilt a full brick in or outside ofthe facade alignment. The second was to intro-duce half-bricks into the coursing in multiplesof one, two and three (Flemish and Englishbonds). The masonry walls were finished in asand-free cement-based paint. The smoothwhite-washed effect holds the brick patterntogether, softening the edges, filling cavitiesand resulting in a coherent surface.

Surface treatment

Credits Photos: Brett Boardman.

Credits Photos: Kate Blee.

Credits Photos: Paulien Borst


Downstairs upstairs

Vehicular vernacular

Michael Graves’ distinctive brickmotor museum in The Hague.

Statement of intent

The Django Building by Rotterdam-basedKCAP (Kees Christiaanse Architects &Planners) is a 15,000 square metre mixed-usecomplex in Amsterdam’s Zuidas develop-ment zone. Planned around a central court-yard, the nine-storey building nestles betweenthe 29-storey twin towers of Architekten Cie’sAmsterdam Symphony (BB Autumn 2010)and Ateliers Lion’s 20-storey Duke Tower.

The lower floors comprise mainly com-mercial spaces with green glass facades.Located above, the apartments are charac-terised by black brick facades, featuring arepetitive but subtly shifting pattern ofanodised window frames and balconies. Theglazed surface of the brick reflects the lightand mirrors the surroundings, even on rainydays. Masonry was favoured for its warmthand tactility, as well as signalling the build-ing’s residential status within the otherwisebusiness-orientated Zuidas district.

Studio 54 Architecture has reconfigured therear of a house in north London to improveits relationship with the garden. The scheme,which replaces an existing conservatory,

comprises a wide stepped access leading fromnew glazed doors at lower ground level up tothe garden. A balcony on the upper groundfloor links the kitchen to the garden by way ofa shallow line of steps above a garden store. A new entrance is also provided from the stairlanding. Intended to accentuate the horizon-tal rhythm of the composition, the walls and

paving comprise charcoal-fired, waterstrucklong bricks with horizontal raked joints. Thebrick chosen was originally developed forPeter Zumthor’s Kolumba Museum inCologne, Germany. Horizontal strips of west-ern red cedar, aligned flush with and corre-sponding to the narrow brick courses, areused to clad the balcony and the door and

cladding panel to the garden store (below).Studio 54 says the choice of finish is amongthe most important decisions that an archi-tect can make, and the value of using a highquality brick can almost always be justified interms of the long-term visual benefits.

Ground floor plan 1 Market square, 2 prefunction, 3 workshop, 4 auditorium, 5 gentlemen’s room, 6 gift- shop, 7 entrance, 8 tickets, 9 petit gallery, 10 kitchen, 11 Great Hall, 12 gallery, 13 stair hall, 14 pavilion.Credits Photos: Louwman Museum.

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Designed by Michael Graves & Associates withVan Den Pauwert Architecten, the LouwmanMuseum is situated in parkland adjacent to theRoyal Palace in The Hague, Holland. Themuseum contains 10,000 square metres ofexhibition space dedicated to Evert Louwman'scollection of historic cars, coaches and motor-cycles. The plan is bisected east-west by theGreat Hall, which has an arched timber roofand separates exhibition spaces from smallerpublic rooms. Steep pitched roofs reduce theapparent scale of the museum. The red brickfacades incorporate a woven pattern that con-trasts with understated surfaces elsewhere,which include grey stone panels and slate tiles.

Credits Architect: Niall McLaughlin Architects; structure,m&e: Buro Happold Consultants; qs: Tom D’Arcy & Co;landscape architect: Desmond Fitzgerald Architects; firesafety: Greaney Fire Safety; acoustic engineer: Paul GillieronAcoustic Design; contractor: Lissadell Construction; Photos: Nick Kane.

Credits Photo: Nick Kane.


Town and country Surgical precision

Baldry Gardens Health Centre by HenleyHalebrown Rorrison is a new GP surgery andcommunity health centre in Streatham,south London. The £3m building uses brickand block cavity wall construction, with thefacing brick varied in both tone and hue toreflect the range of brick stocks found in thelocality. The variegated brickwork is pointedflush with chocolate brown mortar to createa dense monolithic form. Clay airbricks andweepholes, achieved by the omission of mor-tar in the perpends, eschew the need for theplastic products commonly associated withcontemporary brickwork. Movement jointsare marked by a subtle dissonance in thebrickwork patterns. Metal doors, railings andlouvres in salmon pink, cream and two huesof brown seek to caricature the brickwork,according to the architects. Windows arebronze anodised aluminium with green glassto complement the brick tones.

Designed for a young family, this 400 squaremetre house by DVA Arhitekta is set in a leafyresidential area close to Zagreb city centre inCroatia. The brief was to provide privacy fromthe north-facing street, while opening up thesouth elevation to the views and mature plant-ing at the rear of the site.

Conceived as a solid object from which theexternal terraces and interior spaces havebeen carved, the house contains a living areaon the ground floor, with bedrooms aboveand a large basement and garage below. Anatrium located adjacent to the staircase con-tributes to good levels of natural daylight,while maintaining privacy from the west.

The house is built with waste bricks, ie factory leftovers, that are intended to comple-ment the old and unfinished character of thelocal neighbourhood. Energy efficiency isprovided by geothermal heating and cooling,as well as a state-of-the-art HVAC system.

Unfolding memory

The Alzheimer’s Respite Centre in Dublin byNiall McLaughlin Architects is built in an eigh-teenth-century walled kitchen garden, withgranite on the north and east, and warm brickstocks on the sunward sides. The scheme isinspired by Rudolf Schindler’s Kings RoadHouse in California and Luis Barragan’s ownhouse in Mexico City – ‘a memory of constantunfolding within the limits of a fixed contain-er’. The architect says that people withAlzheimer’s Disease benefit from remaining in

Niall McLaughlin’s Alzheimer’sRespite Centre employs radiatingbrick walls and timber lanterns.

company at the social hub of things. At thesame time they feel a deep need to wander. The1500 square metre, single-storey building isplanned around and frames a series of new gar-den spaces, which take the form of courtyards,orchards, allotments and lawns. Users are ableto negotiate the building using wanderingloops. Journeys, where possible, are throughgardens and rooms, avoiding claustrophobiccorridors. No route ends in a cul-de-sac whichmight induce disorientation and panic.Radiating, yellow brick walls in a stretcher bondwith square recessed joints extend into thelandscape and support square, timber-framedlanterns that bring daylight into the deep plan.

Credits Photos: Robert Leš.

For Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM), architecture is defined by the experience of theuser: buildings should not only be easy to under-stand, but also satisfying to use and beautiful to lookat. Founded in 1989 by Simon Allford, JonathanHall, Paul Monaghan and Peter Morris and now 150-strong, the practice favours a collaborativeapproach to design that is pragmatic, analytical, and refreshingly unegotistical. The work, which

Simon Allford and Paul Monaghan discuss AHMM’s evolutionary approach todesigning with brick with John Ramshaw.


PROFILEo

covers housing, schools, offices, medical facilitiesand arts projects, is contextually, programmaticallyand architecturally diverse, and resists easy stylisticcategorisation.

This is due in part to AHMM’s longstandinginterest in materiality, surface and making. Thepractice seems equally at ease using state-of-the-artcurtain walling or rainscreen cladding, as it doesmore traditional forms of timber and masonry con-struction, Materials are always chosen with greatcare and used in ways that are both expressive andeconomical. While there is no single material thatis immediately identified with the practice, brickhas remained a constant, finding its way into a high proportion of projects, always thoughtfully andoften in ways that are unexpected.

glazed bricks form a plinth that grounds the build-ing and provides an exuberant yet resilient externalfinish. Glazed bricks are also used at Dalston Lane –a social housing scheme in east London for thePeabody Trust – with render in a bold checkerboardpattern on the upper floors. Inspired by EdwinLutyens’ checkerboard brick paneling at PageStreet (1928-30) on the Grosvenor Estate inPimlico, the graphical quality of the render locatesthe building within the wider urban context. In contrast, the brick base engages directly with thestreet, expressing quality and durability. The deci-sion to use a relatively expensive and unusual brick,where one might expect to find a traditionalLondon stock, endows each project with a civicquality that belies its tight budgetary constraints.

Above/left Dalston Lane social housing, eastLondon (1999). A blue glazed brick base isdesigned to engage with the street, expressingquality, joy and durability (ph: AHMM).Above Crown Street Buildings in Leeds (2005)exemplifies AHMM’s ‘brick as frame’ typology (ph: Tim Soar).Opposite top Jubilee School in south London(2002) employs a glazed brick plinth to groundthe building and create an exuberant yet resilientexternal finish (ph: AHMM). Opposite above left The Johnson Building inLondon (2006) rejects the brick reveal in favourof a flat, plane-like aesthetic (ph: AHMM).Opposite above right The sculptural quality of brick is expressed at Church Street in eastLondon (2009) in the form of loggias and deep balconies (ph: Tim Soar).

‘Our fascination with brick stems from an innatedesire to tease out its inner qualities, almost in aKahnian way,’ says Simon Allford. ‘Each project isinfluenced by the preceding one, with brick ideastested and subtle adjustments and refinementsmade.’ Thematically, the buildings correspond tothree specific types: brick as base, brick as frame,and brick as envelope. Early projects, such as NorthCroydon Medical Centre (1998), Dalston Lane(1999), and Jubilee School (2002) often used brickat the base of the building with render above.Allford says this was influenced to some extent bythe work of Adolf Loos, and is an establishedapproach to placing lower cost buildings in the city, giving priority to the finishes at street level.

At Jubilee School in Brixton, south London, blue

wall you have wonderful bonds, but if you put a newbrick wall alongside, however expensive, it willalways looks a bit cheap because its stretcher,stretcher, stretcher. There’s no variation.’ As anantidote to this, the practice often focuses on theraking and shadowing of the bond, as well as thequality and proportion of the brick.

At Sunshine House in south London (2007), theappearance of the stretcher bond is transformed bythe use of a thin black brick. Allford says the practicefought hard to retain the special brick, whichalthough not dissimilar in unit price to a standard-sized product, cost more to lay. The depth of themasonry is revealed through a series of glimpsedcourtyards placed at 90 degrees to the main facade,while the unusual choice of colour ensures a con-stantly changing aesthetic, as the brick surfaceappears to turn white upon catching the sunlight. ‘By specifying a good brick you’ve done 80 per centof the work’, says Monaghan. ‘A brick that has realquality in terms of grain, colour and depth is sostrong that everything else can be quite subordinate.’

Some of AHMM’s most recent brick projectsachieve striking visual effects by using comparative-ly simple modelling techniques, as with WaverleySchool in Birmingham. Due to complete in late2012, this project will employ different shades ofmortar – from white to black – to create a series ofhorizontal layers or bands across the dark brickfacades. Computer visualisations indicate anintriguing perceptual effect in which the brickappears to take on different tones, despite being a uniform colour.

A variation on this theme can be seen on thedesign for Norwood Hall Joint Service Centre inLambeth, south London (2012). Instead of chang-ing colour, the mortar is raked on alternate courses(by up to 25mm), producing deep shadow lines.This gives a stratified appearance, even though thebrick is again of uniform colour and texture. Thebricks appear to project and recess on alternatefaces at the corners of the building, resulting in ashifting effect that adds to the layered, three-dimen-sional nature of the facades. In both projects, varia-tion is achieved without recourse to expensivebricks or complicated detailing.

Texture and surface manipulation are also keyfeatures of Barking Central, a £72m mixed-usedevelopment in east London comprising apart-ments, retail units, a hotel, and a learning centre(2010). A lower nine-storey residential block, BathHouse, is clad using a dark engineering brick. Inorder to reduce the apparent scale of the buildingand add visual interest, every fourth brick is a stan-dard cant brick with a recessed corner, resulting ina diagonal pattern when viewed obliquely. By con-trast, the taller 18-storey tower is clad with a fine,chalk-coloured brick that from a distance gives theappearance of render. ‘We were trying to get a moremasonry feel,’ Paul Monaghan explains. ‘The towerappears to be carved out of something solid, ratherthan broken down into smaller elements. We alsowanted something that would be gentler on the sky-line, in contrast to Barking’s red brick towers, manyof which are now being torn down.’


Brick as ‘frame’ is exemplified by the Crown StreetBuildings, a mixed-use commercial and residentialdevelopment in the centre of Leeds (2005). Themasonry facades are in places aligned flush with themetal reveals to the windows and panels of brightlycoloured ceramic tile. Elsewhere, the window open-ings are pushed back, revealing a full brick depthand expressing the three-dimensional nature of theskin. This approach is taken a step further at ChurchStreet, a social housing scheme in Stratford, eastLondon (2009). Instead of creating defined windowrecesses, entire portions of the facade are recessedto form brick loggias and balconies. The masonryskin also extends inside the building, resulting incommon areas and circulation spaces that areextremely hard-wearing and low maintenance.

In contrast to both Crown Street and ChurchStreet, the Johnson Building in London (2006)rejects the brick reveal entirely in favour of asmooth, planar aesthetic. The composition is a playof glass and brick, light and shade, with the flush-faced windows and their minimal frames abstractedwithin the plane-like masonry walls. Allfordexplains that in order to avoid an unsatisfactory‘half-way house’, the brick reveal or recess is alwaysexpressed clearly or else it is not employed at all.

Bonding is another key issue for the practice.‘Brick is being dumbed down by modern construc-tion’, explains Allford. ‘You don’t get interestingbonds because the Building Regulations have led tocavity walls, which means a single skin of endlessstretcher bond. If you look at almost any historical

The smooth masonry facades are carefully lay-ered, employing recessed balconies with brightlycoloured walls and flush window surrounds. Thebrick serves as a foil to the coloured wall elements,preventing them from becoming, in Monaghan’swords, too ‘flat’ or cartoon-like. Unusually for abuilding of this size, the brick is expressed as a semi-loadbearing element rather than as a series ofpanels. For the architect this arose partly by chanceas, due to the effects of the recession, the contrac-tor was able to mobilise a bigger labour force. Thisin turn led to the use of scaffolding and traditionalbrick laying techniques. ‘The move towards scaffold-free environments over the last 10 to 15years has made brick more difficult to use and driven architects towards panelised formats’, says

Top/above Horizontal banding is expressed atWaverley School in Birmingham (2012) andNorwood Hall Joint Service Centre in London(2012) by using different shades of mortar andraked mortar courses respectively. Above right The use of a thin black brick atSunshine House in south London (2007)transforms the appearance of a standard stretcher bond (phs: Tim Soar, Rob Parrish). Opposite Barking Central is a £72m mixed-usedevelopment in east London (2010). Everyfourth brick on Bath House is a standard cantbrick with a recessed corner (phs: Rob Parrish).Smooth masonry facades used on an 18-storeytower are carefully layered to reveal recessed balconies and flush-faced windows (ph: Tim Soar).


Allford. ‘While we have looked into this, we feel thatbrick used in this way becomes just another anony-mous facing material – it could be a panel of metal,a panel of render, a panel of anything’.

Perhaps the closest that AHMM has come so far toexpressing brick purely as cladding material is the11-storey Hampstead Road development in centralLondon (2012). Located on a triangular site and sur-rounded by high-rise office buildings, the concrete-framed structure will be faced with stack bondedbrickwork. Allford confesses that stack bonding issomething that the practice has resisted for sometime, because ‘bricks need to be bonded, that’s whythey exist’. The technique is being adopted as a wayof re-visiting the ‘brick as veneer’ theme used atBarking Central.

AHMM is also interested in the way that stackbonded, vertically aligned bricks catch the light,compared to conventional stretcher bond. A textured white brick is being considered with theintention of creating a rippled effect across thefacades. As ever, brick drives the architecture of thescheme. ‘If brick is a veneer, then you read it as aveneer and you play with it as a veneer,’ explains

tradition, and features raked mortar joints. Boldsculptural massing is combined with areas of perfo-rated brick used to form shaded terrace spaces.

The practice’s approach to brick has come almostfull-circle in recent years with a return to ‘brick asbase’. Kentish Town Health Centre in northLondon (2008) creates a layered effect by using tra-ditional engineering brick for the ground- floorbase, garden walls and interior spaces. The Level, amixed-use development in Oklahoma City, USA,extends the brick base out at ground level to createa sense of vibrancy and street life. Sidewalks andseating areas are defined using buff-colouredbricks, contrasting with the grey brick used at thebase of the building.

Looking back, Allford admits that it has been abattle to make brick come alive. ‘When we startedout, the profession used to make brick buildingsthat were so bland, with acres of stretcher bond. Butthe more we have worked with brick the more wehave enjoyed it, and in the last five to ten years, wehave come to believe that it’s a fantastic material,that is robust and ages better than any of the othermaterials we are using.’

Allford explains. ‘In reality, brick is always a veneer,it’s never a nine inch bond and it’s never load-bear-ing. We have become more relaxed about sayingthat its a cladding material with certain qualitiesthat we have to draw out.’

The reasons for using brick on any given projectare varied but, as Monaghan explains, context is notone of them. ‘I cannot think where we have everused it because of the context,’ he says. ‘I thinkwhen we set up 20 years ago people would do abrick building in a brick street because it matched.We’ve never really used brick in that way. We’veused it more because of the scale and because weenjoy it’. From Allford’s perspective a brick contextpresents an additional challenge. ‘If it’s built in pre-war brick it will be a bond, and therefore brick-for-brick we are never going to match it. If you comein and try to be part of the context you are going tolook like a second rate, twenty-first century versionof it. You therefore have to use brick in a moreimaginative way. If you don’t, it will just be stretcherbond, (unlike say, an English garden wall), and itwill look like a cheap building.’

In recent years AHMM has found that the durabil-

ity and robustness of brick has found increasingfavour with housing and public sector clients, wherelong-term maintenance costs are an important con-sideration. A prime example is King William StreetQuarter in Barking, east London, due to complete inApril this year, where AHMM and MaccreanorLavington Architects are producing the first pur-pose-built council housing in the town for some 27years. Described tongue-in-cheek by Monaghan as‘Accordia for the masses’, in reference to the award-winning Cambridge housing development built inbrick, the first phase of the project includes an eight-metre-wide mews street comprising two-storey, timber-framed brick-faced terraced houses. A goodquality, highly textured light brickwork is used along-side unusually large windows with light green metalframes. The scale of the fenestration has a strangevisual effect on the brickwork, altering its appear-ance and elevating it above the commonplace.

Another future project that has been designed totight budgetary constraints is Jackson Speedometer,a one-off house in Oklahoma City, USA. The two-storey dwelling will use a cheap, textured brick thatis white-washed, in keeping with local building

Above Jackson Speedometer is a one-off house in Oklahoma City, USA. combining bold massing with a cheap textured brick that is white-washed in keeping with local building tradition. Above right Kentish Town Health Centre in London (2008) marks a returnto AHMM’s ‘brick as base’ typology; King William Street Quarter will be thefirst purpose-built council housing in Barking for over 25 years (phs: AHMM). Opposite above/below The Level, a mixed-use development in OklahomaCity, USA, extends the brick base out at ground level to create a sense ofvibrancy and street life; due to complete later this year, AHMM will use stack-bonded brickwork for the first time on a mixed-use office and apartment building on Hampstead Road in central London.

Louis Kahn’s tour-de-force of brickwork, the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad, celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. Photos: Edmund Sumner.


PRECEDENT

Brick interrogations

Above Kahn’s first version of the masterplan, dated 1963, contains the main elementsthat remained throughout the project development, albeit with a different orientation. Below Administration wings along the north-east side flank open courtyards.

‘To express is to drive. And when you want to give somethingpresence, you have to consult nature. And there is whereDesign comes in. And if you think of Brick, for instance, andyou say to Brick, “What do you want Brick?” And Brick says toyou “I like an Arch”. And if you say to Brick “Look, arches areexpensive, and I can use a concrete lintel over you. What doyou think of that?” “Brick?” Brick says: “... I like an Arch”.’

Louis Kahn’s oft-quoted commentary on the humblebrick refers to its use in his late masterpiece, the IndianInstitute of Management in Ahmedabad, India, currentlycelebrating its fiftieth anniversary. Kahn never saw the proj-ect complete – he died of a heart attack on 17th March 1974at Penn Station in New York on the way back from a site visit.

Established in 1961, responsibility for the commission forthe new IIM building was entrusted to the respected Indianarchitect Balkrishna Doshi, who had earlier worked on

BB SPRING 11 • 2120 • BB SPRING 11

Above Historian Vincent Scully, a lifelong advocate of Kahn’s work, lectured at Caltech in 1992, suggesting: ‘His brick Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad seems to be a conscious misreading of a Roman ruin. Romans, in Ostia forexample, often built walls of two courses of brick, filled with concrete. In order to keep the fresh pour from breaking thewooden lintels over openings, they would build a relieving arch right through the two thicknesses of brick wall. So you get avoid, a lintel, and an arch. In what Kahn called his “brick order” he revised this and used the lintel to hold the arch together.He splits the impost block in the middle to make you feel the tautness, the tension of the sides, as if they're trying to holdthe brick back. There’s so much more life in it than if it were a solid block. ’Below Kahn’s final version of the IIM masterplan, dated 1972, is largely as built, apart from the kitchen/dining building(left of the main courtyard), the amphitheatre and water tower (from Louis I Kahn: Complete Work 1935-74, by HeinzRonner and Sharad Jhaveri, Birkhäuser, 1977).Below left Interior and exterior view of a dormitory building; section through courtyard.

Le Corbusier’s Ahmedabad buildings, who then asked Kahnto design the project. It was to comprise a main buildingwith teaching areas, a library and faculty offices around themain courtyard, and linked student dormitories and facultyand staff houses. In designing the school, Kahn challengedconventional notions of learning in classrooms, delightingin incorporating corridors and spaces where less formalteaching could happen, as well as serendipitous meetings.The selection of brick as the principal material, said to bemade by the client for reasons of cost, prompted Kahn tolook at Roman precedents such as the Baths of Caracalla andHadrian’s Villa at Tivoli for inspiration. The massive, austerebrick forms also suggested a spiritual experience thatchimed with the optimism and search for identity of the newnation, emerging from colonial rule, that could embraceboth modernity and tradition.

The dormitories, built to accommodate 300 students,were conceived as blocks of 60 student rooms, each dividedinto units of 20. The floors of 10 rooms shared a living space,and a series of external yards give privacy to the individualrooms, capture prevailing breezes, and can be used as a gath-ering place for students. The housing district, comprisingstaggered L-shaped buildings forming a large inner court,form a backdrop to the main complex.

Kahn believed that order was a fundamental principle:‘There is an order of all things: of wind, of materials, of ourbeing… order governs the making of everything that ismade, and in everything is the record of its making’. Appliedat IIM, the ‘brick wants to be an arch; the concrete wants tobe a lintel (or flat roof)… some have a relieving arch overthe openings, some others have relieving arch over a lintel,and some others just with straight arches’.


TECHNICALo

An undistinguished 1980s house locatedwithin the Swiss Cottage ConservationArea in north-west London, has beenover-clad and extended by DugganMorris Architects. The locality is charac-terised by Victorian detached, semi-detached and terraced houses built ofred brick with terracotta mouldings,alongside post-war infill developments.

The architect was asked to progress ascheme that had already received con-sent for a two-storey side extension andremodelling of an existing familydwelling. Following a preliminary sitevisit, its initial thought was that the proj-ect represented an opportunity to revi-talise the somewhat ordinary red-brickbuilding and build an extension as a sub-servient but seemingly interconnected

annex, unifying the whole in brick,rather than a contrasting material.

‘This opportunity seemed to havebeen missed by the previously approvedscheme, which sought a strange confec-tion of dormers, gables and parapets, intrying to “recreate” the past, says thearchitect. ‘To our mind this seemed aderogatory reference to the surround-ing Victorian terraces.’

Duggan Morris argued that the quali-ty of the neighbouring buildings on thestreet meant that a sensitive modernapproach to the refurbishment andextension could present a vast improve-ment. Planning constraints governedthe height of the annex, which wasdetermined by the height of a previous-ly removed electrical substation on the

site. This height restriction by toppingthe extension with a cranked and plant-ed green roof, ‘a slice of landscapewoven into the urban fabric, designed toallow views of its surface and beyond, tothe context of the surroundingVictorian properties and rear gardens’.

The existing building had been builtin a low grade, bright red brick, and overtime had suffered from neglect andpiecemeal changes. Duggan Morris’original idea was to remove the outerskin of brick and entirely rebuild it, butsignificant structural constraints andcost implications made this a nearimpossibility. The solution was to over-clad the retained skin with a new halfbrick layer. This presented a number ofbenefits, not least cost, speed, ease of

construction, and minimising waste.The architect had used the chosen

brick on two previous projects:Frobisher House in Bushey, a BrickAward winner in 2011, and Kings Grovein Peckham. It was selected for its unusu-al colour variation and highly texturalsurface. Taking reference from the brickVictorian terraces, the two conjoinedbuildings are thus wrapped in a homog-enous brick skin, but which use a subtlydiffering colour palette; the originalbuilding is clad in a red brick (multi fac-ings) and the annex in a slightly darkertone (selected dark facings). ‘We feltthat the darker brick would suggest amore contemporary origin, true to theoverall composition of the two build-ings’, says Duggan Morris.

Above Ground and upper floor plans.Right External wall sections through theextension showing the brick cavity wallconstruction and sedum roof.Left External wall section through theexisting house showing the overcladdingbrick-slip system; cross section throughthe existing house and the new extension;rear elevation drawing showing the twoshades of brick employed in the project;view as built.

Credits Architect: Duggan MorrisArchitects; structural engineer: LyonsO’Neill; environmental design consultant:Banyards Consulting; party wall surveyor:BCS Consulting; client and contractor:Regal Homes; photo: Mark Hadden.

Duggan Morris Architects has transformed an undistinguished1980s house by overcladding and extending it in brickwork.

brick bulletin...brick development association, the building centre, 26 store street, london, wc1e...

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