Meck Architekten in Munich

Martin Pearce profiles Hopkins Architects

DSDHA’s Pond Meadow School in Guildford

John Pardey on Jørn Utzon’s early brick projects

Ortner & Ortner’s garden city of house types

Testing times for unfired clay bricksSPRING 2009

BRICK

BULLETIN

Complex simplicityHistorically, leaner times have oftenresulted in buildings of austere beauty.Limited funds tend to concentrate theminds of designers to achieve morewith less and a ‘limited palette’ ofmaterials becomes a creative virtue.The fact that no other constructionmaterial offers the creative potentialof brick is amply demonstrated by anumber of projects in this issue ofthe Brick Bulletin – from Ortner &Ortner’s catalogue of house types in itslatter-day ‘garden city’ at Merschkampto Meck Architekten’s masterly fusionof spiritual and social values in theDominikuszentrum north of Munich.

Katherina Lewis

To find out more about the bricks or pavers in featuredprojects, or to submit projects for possible publication,email brick@brick.org.uk or phone 020 7323 7030

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Contents4 NEWS

Projects from West Lancashire toWestern Australia via Mongolia

6 PROJECTSOrtner & Ortner’s Münstergarden city; DSDHA’s PondMeadow School in Guildford;Wright & Wright’s Hull TruckTheatre; Erick van Egeraat inHaarlem; Meck Architekten inMunich; Nord’s 2012 substation

12 PROFILEMartin Pearce traces the evolutionof brick construction in the workof Hopkins Architects

18 PRECEDENTJohn Pardey on the late JørnUtzon’s first works – all in brick

22 TECHNICALTesting unfired clay eco-bricks

Brick Bulletin Spring 2009Executive editor: Katherina Lewis tel: 020 7323 7030 email: brick@brick.org.ukBrick Development Association, The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London, WC1E 7BT

The BDA represents the United Kingdom and Ireland’s clay brick and paver manufacturers and promotes excellence in the architectural, structural and landscapeapplications of brick and pavers. The BDA provides practical, technical and aestheticadvice and information through its website www.brick.org.uk, in its numerous publications and over the phone.

Published by the BDA ©2009. Editorial and design by Architecture Today plc.

Frontispiece The lateJørn Utzon’s Kingohousing at Helsingor,Denmark (1956-59).Photo: Seier + Seier.CoverDominikuszentrum,Munich, by MeckArchitekten. Photo:Michael Heinrich.Back coverOne of 12 pavilions,designed by ErwinHeerich on HombroichIsland, an arts foundationlocated on a formerNATO missile base nearNeuß in Germany. Photo:Stiftung Insel Hombroich.

BDA member companiesBlockleys Brick t +44 (0)1952 251933 www.michelmersh.com

Bovingdon Brickworks t +44 (0)1442 833176 www.bovingdonbricks.co.uk

Broadmoor Brickworks t +44 (0)1594 822255 sales@broadmoor-brickworks.co.uk

Bulmer Brick & Tile Co t +44 (0)1787 269 232 bbt@bulmerbrickandtile.co.uk

Caradale Traditional Brick t +44 (0)1501 730671 www.caradale.co.uk

Carlton Brick t +44 (0)1226 711521 www.carltonbrick.co.uk

Charnwood Forest Brick t +44 (0)1509 503203 www.michelmersh.com

Chartwell Brickworks t +44 (0)1732 463712 www.chartwellbrickworks.com

Coleford Brick & Tile t +44 (0)1594 822160 www.colefordbrick.co.uk

Dunton Brothers t +44 (0)1494 772111 www.michelmersh.com

Freshfield Lane Brickworks t +44 (0)1825 790350 www.flb.uk.com

Furness Brick & Tile Co t +44 (0)1229 462411 www.furnessbrick.com

Hanson Building Products t +44 (0)870 609 7092 www.hanson.co.uk

HG Matthews t +44 (0)1494 758212 www.hgmatthews.com

Ibstock Brick t +44 (0)1530 261999 www.ibstock.co.uk

Lagan Brick t +353 (0)42 9667317 www.laganbrick.com

Michelmersh Brick & Tile t +44 (0)1794 368506 www.michelmersh.com

Normanton Brick t +44 (0)1924 892142

Northcot Brick t +44 (0)1386 700551 www.northcotbrick.co.uk

Ormonde Brick t +353 (0)56 4441323 www.ormondebrick.ie

Phoenix Brick Company t +44 (0)1246 471576 www.bricksfromphoenix.co.uk

Wm C Reade of Aldeburgh t +44 (0)1728 452982 jha@wmcreade.co.uk

Swarland Brick Co t +44 (0)1665 574229 chris@swarlandbrick.fsnet.co.uk

Tower Brick & Tile t +44 (0)1420 488489 www.towerbrickandtile.co.uk

Tyrone Brick t +44 (0)28 8772 3421 www.tyrone-brick.com

The York Handmade Brick Co t +44 (0)1347 838881 www.yorkhandmade.co.uk

WH Collier t +44 (0)1206 210301 www.whcollier.co.uk

Wienerberger t +44 (0)161 4918200 www.wienerberger.co.uk

BRICK BULLETIN SPRING 09

Who is Tyler Rozicki?

Tyler Rozicki, an architectural student witha passion for masonry construction, is theman behind the Brick Blog. The websitedocuments a number of inspirationalmasonry projects – discovered by the authorduring the course of his studies – includingEladio Dieste’s Cristo Obrero Church inAtlantida, Uruguay (above), and carvedbrick sculpture at the University of Florida(below) by Partin Studios (details:http://brickmasonry.blogspot.com).

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NEWS

A history of brick down under

As an alternative history of Sydney, TheBrickmasters 1788-2008 by Ron Ringer,explores the impact of social, economic,technological and architectural change onone of Australia’s oldest industries. Beginningwith the discovery in 1788 of workable clays atCockle Creek in what is now Darling Harbourin Sydney, this richly illustrated book tracesthe development of brickmaking during earlycolonial times, noting the industrial transfor-mations that carried the trade forward intothe age of mass production. Central to thenarrative is the story of The Austral BrickCompany which, under the stewardship of‘King of Bricks’ William King Dawes (1898-1981), became Australia’s longest survivingmanufacturer of clay products since federa-tion in 1901 (Dry Press Publishing, ISBN9780646488257, photo: Josh Hill). • To purchase a copy of The Brickmastersphone Chris Blanchett on 01903 717648 oremail sales@bucklandbooks.co.uk.

About Face winners announced

Perth-based practice Pendal & Neille has been announced as the joint-winner andpeer winner of About Face 2008, ThinkBrick Australia’s prestigious invitation-onlydesign ideas competition. The design is for a new arts building in the centre of Perth,which draws on the city’s rich tradition ofbrick architecture. Located in Wolf Lane, athoroughfare connecting King, Murray andWilliam Streets, the four-storey structure isconstructed using light grey/buff coloured

MOS villa is one of a hundred

MOS Architects – one of a hundred emerging practices picked by JacquesHerzog to design 100 houses for a site inthe Ordos desert, Inner Mongolia – hasreleased designs of a masonry villa inspiredby traditional Chinese courtyard houses

and nomadic yurt typologies. Plannedaround six courtyards, the 1000 squaremetre dwelling comprises 11 rooms rang-ing in height from four to ten metres.Each living space is conceived as an individual volume with its own roof. Therooms are connected at the corners toremove the need for hallways and excessive

circulation space. Using regional materials,each unit will be constructed from in-situconcrete and faced with brick. A combina-tion of solar chimneys, skylights, thermalmass and carefully positioned windows isintended to optimise comfort and naturallighting despite dramatic daily temperatureswings throughout the year.

Green light for Allies & Morrison

Allies & Morrison has obtained planningapproval for a £100m office building atKing’s Cross Central in London. Featuringrobust brick columns and concrete beamswith deep reveals, the scheme is designed to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating.

Greyhound triumph for RHM

Riches Hawley Mikhail Architects has wonthe RIBA’s Greyhound Opening housingcompetition ahead of Make, Shed KM andMaccreanor Lavington. The brief was todesign 100 affordable mixed-tenure homeson a 1.2 hectare brownfield site in Norwich.

Brick Awards 2009 launched

The Brick Development Association haslaunched this year’s Brick Awards. The principal criteria for entry is that projectsfeature clay bricks or pavers made by BDAmembers (unless they are entered in theworldwide category). There are 13 awardssplit into three categories: housing, build-ing and landscape, and technical and craft.

50th anniversary for the Lego brick

A perennial favourite of children and archi-tects alike, Lego has celebrated the 50thanniversary of the day it filed its first patentfor the iconic plastic brick. To celebrate, thecompany has released a commemorative version of Lego Town Plan, which was oneof the first themed elements of the ‘systemof play’. Although updated, the set includes1950s period elements, such as a gas station,movie theatre and, of course, a town hall.The original Town Plan box from 1955 fea-tured Lego founder Ole Kirk Christiansen’sgrandson Kjeld as a boy. The new box features him again, this time as a grownman (details: http://cache.lego.com).

Gehry completes Lewis Library

Frank Gehry’s Lewis Library has been completed at Princeton University, NewJersey, after four years on site. Distinguishedby a curving roof and 30-metre high tower,the 8100 square metre building is clad inbrick, stucco, glass and stainless steel. Thelibrary, which houses the university’s sciencecollections and technology spaces, willanchor a new precinct on the east campusthat includes designs by Hopkins Architectsand Rafael Viñoly (photo: Brian Wilson).

encapsulates the rest of the teaching accom-modation and administration spaces. Afterevaluating various types of brick – many ofwhich were considered too domestic incolour and variation – the architect decidedon a smooth ‘Portland’ buff brick.Considered more appropriate for a collegebuilding, the brick creates a lighter andmore open aesthetic that will help thescheme assert itself within its context. Thecollege is due to open in September 2010.

RMJM campus for West Lancashire

RMJM has designed a new £35m campus forSkelmersdale and Ormskirk College in WestLancashire. Forming a key part of the widerregeneration of Skelmersdale, the 12,500square metre scheme will provide state-of-the-art facilities for 4000 students and thelocal community. The main accommodationwill be sited on a natural plateau, allowingthe south-facing entrance elevation to forma bounded square at the end of a pedestrianhigh street. The scheme is planned along anorth-west to south-east axis, with the eastelevation addressing the urban context ofSkelmersdale and the west elevation address-ing the woodland setting of Tawd Valley.

Within its semi-urban context the build-ing presents a timber face to the town and abrick face to the valley, so it sits comfortablyon its site when viewed from either side.

A timber box houses the specialist teaching spaces. This element is held inplace by a flowing ribbon of brick, which

There is also the BDA Building of the Yearaward for the overall winner. Entries arejudged on design, choice of brick, brickdetailing and craftsmanship. The awards will be presented at London’s MarriottGrosvenor Square Hotel on 4 November.The closing date for entries is 19 June2009. Entry forms are available from www.brick.org.uk/2009awards, or by emailing brick@brick.org.uk or by callingthe BDA on 020 7323 7030.

bricks externally and white glazed bricksinside. Unusual facade treatments, windowopenings and skylights produce varied andshifting light effects throughout the build-ing. The ground floor is occupied by galleryspaces, the first and second floors houseadministration and archive functions, whilethe third floor is given over to an artist-in-residence programme. All four levels areconnected by a circular staircase. Both thegallery and studio spaces feature barrel andparabolic brick arches, which are naturally lit from above using ‘snorkel-like’ funnels.

‘Bricks are so durable,’ says architectStephen Neille. ‘They provide a perma-nent base against which the ephemeralityof light can play. They can also, as individ-ual units, be used to configure spaces thatsurround you, spaces that vault, spring,curve and move, where light plays on thesurface.’ Adds Neille, ‘brick has quite apowerful ecological direction, if we don’tbuild poorly and have to knock buildingsdown.’ The other winning design was bym3architecture for a community centre inBrisbane (details: www.thinkbrick.com).

RHM’s design comprises 46 houses and 56flats aligned as terraces to form streets andcourts. All of the homes face south andincorporate low sections and 15-degreeroofs to capture free winter energy.Materials are typical of Norwich: white brickin lime mortar, combined with colouredtimber balcony recesses and dormers.

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Ortner & Ortner, architect of the celebratedVienna Museum Quarter, has completed theMerschkamp residential district nearMünster in north Germany. The competition-winning scheme develops the idea of a com-pact garden city and is conceived entirely inbrick, referring to the brick houses of Miesvan der Rohe and Heinz Bienefeld as well asfarmhouses in the region. The seven basichouse types extend the language of brickfrom walls to carports and paved patios to cre-ate something akin to a courtyard house andsuggest complexity and variety within theproject as a whole. A central ‘ring’ road pro-vides access to all 27 houses which range from106 to 174 square metres. Water-struck brickswith flush pointing are employed through-out, with a variety of bonding patterns.

While the residential area is tightlyplanned, the development includes an openplay and sports area to the south that isshared with the residents of nearby houses.The neighbourhood is landscaped withplants chosen for their colour. Pyruscalleryana provides shade for the parkingareas and prunus accolade structures thepark; beech hedges define the front gardens.

Ortner & Ortner’sGarden City revival

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CCrreeddiittss Architect:: Ortner & Ortner; design team:Manfred Ortner, Laurids Ortner, Markus Müller(project manager); client:Wohn & Stadtbau Münster,Wohnungsunternehmen der Stadt Münster ;photos: Christian Richters.

GGaarrddeenn ccoouurrtt hhoouussee wweesstt ((88))170sq m, plot 350sq m

GGaarrddeenn ccoouurrtt hhoouussee eeaasstt ((99))140sq m, plot 325sq m

GGaarrddeenn hhoouussee ((55))130sq m, plot 250sq m

CCoouurrtt hhoouussee ((33 uunniittss))140sq m, plot 250sq m

GGaattee hhoouussee ((22))110sq m, plot 220sq m

PROJECTS

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Taking flight:Erick van Egeraat in Haarlem

Keep on trucking

Site specific: DSDHA in Guildford

Designed by JAG van der Steur and built in1918, the Municipal Theatre in Haarlem isone of Holland’s five oldest theatres. Afteralmost a century of use, the listed structureno longer met contemporary requirementsfor theatre techniques, production facilitiesand building accessibility. This led to Erickvan Egeraat Architects being appointed to undertake a major programme of renovation and extension.

The most striking intervention is a newflight tower. The visual impact of this element is minimised through careful mass-ing and the layering of different materials.Brickwork (similar in colour and hue to theexisting building), together with ornamentedporcelain and partially screen-printed glass,forms a clear connection with the historic facades.

The use of lighter materials towards thetop of the tower further reduces its visualimpact. The ceramic ornaments, whichmake reference to the porcelain featured inthe original facade, were developed in closecollaboration with Dutch ceramic artistBabs Haenen.

Due to open later this Spring, the £10mHull Truck Theatre by Wright & WrightArchitects comprises a 444-seat auditorium,a 138-seat studio theatre, rehearsal andworkshop spaces, education facilities, bars,corporate areas and offices. An industrialaesthetic permeates the design, with robustand durable materials considered both con-ceptually appropriate and practically neces-sary for the building. A combination ofsmooth blue and glazed gloss bricks areused to clad the building both inside andout. This resonates with the grand ware-houses of Hull – an indigenous buildingform from when the city was a prosperous,cosmopolitan port.

DSDHA has completed a special needs schoolfor 92 pupils aged two to 19 for SurreyCounty Council in Guildford. Pond MeadowSchool is part of a £33m flagship educationalcampus shared with Christ’s College, aChurch of England secondary school.

Designed around the concept of an evolving journey through the building, everyclassroom is different. The layout is organisedaround three courtyards with classroomslocated around the perimeter. The undulat-ing form is designed to accommodate theprogression of large and small spaces.

Buildings in the surrounding area are pre-dominantly pitched-roofed red brick houses.The school responds with high quality brick-work with intricate detailing, which the archi-tects suggest gives it a more civic appearance.A high quality engineering brick was selected,with an elongated module size (290x90x52mm) and a colour which slightly differenti-ates it from the predominant local brick.

A third-lap stretcher/running bond wasused to reinforce a sense of horizontal move-ment across the facades. A semi-glazed finishensures that light and shadow contrast tohighlight the angled elevations. In shadowthe bricks are a deep maroon, but whenreflecting light they appear silver.

Windows and doors sit flush with thefacade. At the building ends, the brick skinstretches to envelop the four metre can-tilevered canopies. By contrast, the entranceis defined by a carved recess, cutting into the

CCrreeddiittss Photos: Christian Richters.

An extension toone of Holland’s oldest theatres is rendered in brick, ceramicand glass.

A theatre by Wright & WrightArchitects resonates with Hull’s traditional brick warehouses.

Brick is used to integrate yet subtly differentiate a special needsschool from its surroundings.

CCrreeddiittss Architect:Wright & Wright Architects; m&e: MaxFordham; structure: Alan Baxter & Associates; qs: DavisLangdon Cost Consultants; planning supervisor: BuroHappold; project manager: Davis Langdon ProjectManagement; contractor: Quarmby ConstructionCompany; theatre consultant: Anne Minors PerformanceConsultants; client: Hull Truck Theatre Company.

CCrreeddiittss Architect: DSDHA; structural engineer: AdamsKara Taylor; services engineer: Atelier Ten; cost manager,project manager: Davis Langdon; collaborative artist:Martin Richman; landscape consultant:TownshendLandscape Architects; ff&e: Building Design Partnership;planning consultant: Alliance Environment & Planning;acoustics: Sandy Brown Associates; fire: Fire DesignSolutions; main contractor:Wates Construction; client:Surrey County Council; photo: Tim Soar.

In order to avoid cuts and unsightlyjunctions, the project team drew every brickin the building in elevation. Brick specialswere carefully identified and detailed on thelayout drawings. Great care was taken toensure that the mortar colour, joints and coping harmonised correctly with the brick-work. Several large, full-size sample boards

storey-high plinth to the street, which is carried through into the foyer.

were made and inspected before the preferred combination was chosen.

Brick walls and paving extend into thepublic foyers at ground- and first-floor level,allowing these areas to become part of thestreet. While it is not unusual for glazedbricks to be used in theatres, in this instancethey form a sensuous, tough and tactile

smooth, sheer surface of the external walls.Brick specials were developed with the sub-

contractor to allow the bonding to continueseamlessly around the angled corners.Intricate brick setting-out meant that only1/3, 2/3 and whole bricks were used through-out the project, avoiding the need for cut

bricks of different sizes. This careful setting-out extended to the prefabricated brick-facedconcrete panels that clad the cantileveredcanopies, ensuring a visual consistency withthe site-laid bricks. Site tolerances were key,and the prefabricated ‘flying brickwork’ unitswere hoisted into place in a matter of days.

Careful consideration was given to thechoice of mortar and movement joint mastic.A variety of sample panels was offered by thecontractor to enable an informed decision byDSDHA and, after deliberation, a bespokegrey mortar colour was produced by mixingtwo of the standard ranges.

Collective faith: Meck Architekten in Munich

Spiritual and social values arefused in a brick community centre.

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Won in competition by Meck Architekten,the Dominikuszentrum forms the spiritualand social centre of a new residential district currently under construction innorth Munich. Conceived as a series of pow-erful brick forms arranged around a centralcontemplative courtyard, the two-storeyscheme comprises a chapel, communitycentre, day nursery and a Catholic youth centre. The building is connected to the surrounding area by a number of passage-ways designed to attract passers-by.

Rising above the other amenities, thechapel forms the spiritual centre of the com-plex and dominates the square. Adjacent tothe chapel is the community centre with itslarge parish hall and various group activity

rooms. To the east of the main entrance is the kindergarten. The youth centre islocated on the first floor. Its rooms open outonto two large roof terraces, providingyoung people with a visually and acousticallyshielded outdoor space.

Brick was chosen as the main constructionmaterial to emphasise the architectural concept of a body cut from a solid mass. A high-grade red brick, fired in a peat kiln,gives the centre its distinctive appearance.According to the architect, the size and tactile quality of brick stands for humanscale and timeless building culture. It alsoacknowledges the primary building materi-al: earth. Irregular bricks were favoured togive the facades a lively, sculptural quality.

CCrreeddiittss Architect: Meck Architekten; structural engineer: Statoplan; project manager:Wolfgang Amann,Peter Fretschner; photos: Michael Heinrich.

Nord’s substationtakes first place in the race to 2012

Perforated black bricks walls are used to cool an electrical substation

An electrical substation by NordArchitecture is set to be the first completedbuilding at the Olympic Park site inStratford, London. The concrete structure isclad in black, drag-faced brick with a match-ing mortar. This is intended to provide asense of solidity appropriate to the building’sinfrastructure role, and a visual reference tonumerous dark brick buildings within theEast End of London. A close-knit pattern ofopenings is set into the walls as a means ofventilating the transformer coolers. Thevoids are infilled with mesh to preventpigeons inhabiting the spaces. As a counter-point to the perforations, the upper areasfollow a similar pattern, comprising a combi-nation of recessed and projecting bricks.

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There was a time when to be called a ‘lightweight’architect was a compliment. ‘How much does itweigh?’ was what Buckminster Fuller wanted to knowwhen he visited Michael and Patty Hopkins’ ownmodular steel and glass house in Hampstead, at thebleeding edge of constructional technology in thelate 1970s. Michael Hopkins’ architectural outlookhad been formed in the ‘white heat’ technophilia ofthe Architectural Association in the precedingdecade, a time that saw buildings as assemblages oflightweight industrial prefabricated components,borrowing from aircraft engineering. Buildingswould become transitory consumer products; somewould be able to walk, others would even be able tofly! The impact of these fantastical ideas was very realand led to the high-tech school of architecture whichhas produced some of the great buildings of our age:Piano + Rogers’ Pompidou Centre in Paris and theWillis Faber Dumas insurance office in Ipswich, onwhich Hopkins and Norman Foster collaborated.

Hopkins Architects has produced a strongand consistent body of work in brickwhose iterative development shows anengagement with the ‘timeless verities of architecture’, says Martin Pearce.

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PROFILEo Today Hopkins Architects is strongly associatedwith the ultimate of lightweight materials, the tensilefabric structures developed to enclose theSchlumberger Research Centre near Cambridge(1982) or the Dynamic Earth project in Edinburgh(1999). Buildings such as these and the Lord’sCricket Ground Mound Stand canopy of 1987 havebecome a much-copied leitmotif, now a familiar sightin shopping malls the world over.

Charles Jencks has observed that Hopkins’ work,while light in weight, has an extreme gravitas. Jencksdescribes gravitas as an architectural system whichdemonstrates completeness or finality, a conceptembodied by the great buildings of the classical pastsuch as the Parthenon or the Pantheon. This timelessorder and architectural clarity are the qualities thatLe Corbusier and Louis Kahn so admired and soughtto capture in their own work.

At Lord’s this underlying gravitas is quite literal:the canopy and seating are built upon Frank Verity’s

elegant Soane-inspired arches of the original pavil-ion. This grounds the building in the language of theRoman arch and counterpoints the floating structureabove. Working against Verity’s structure marked apoint when Hopkins’ architecture took a greaterinterest in the use of masonry construction whichcame to the fore in the 1989 commission for the newopera house at Glyndebourne.

Rather than simply juxtaposing traditional withmodern materials and forms, Glyndebourne cele-brates the engineering potential of traditional mate-rials, as high technology and age-old craftsmanshipseamlessly combine. A Hampshire red brick – hand-made to imperial sizes to match the existing house –is employed in generous arcaded apsidal forms. Thesimple flat arches and tapered brick piers expressingclassical entasis and refering to Kahn’s ExeterLibrary are brought to life by changing light modelling deep reveals, the sense of movement,rhythm and intrigue – an appropriately theatrical

TToopp lleefftt Directors atHopkins Architects. Leftto right:AndrewBarnett, David Selby,Chris Bannister, HenryBuxton, Ernest Fasanya,Michael Taylor, JamesGreaves, Simon Fraser,William Taylor, PamelaBate, Edward Williams,Patrick Nee, PattyHopkins, MichaelHopkins (ph:Tom Miller).LLeefftt Hopkins HouseHampstead, London(1976). Constructiontechniques developedfor larger commercialbuildings were used (ph: Martin Wienreb).AAbboovvee Haberdashers'Hall, London (2002).Headquarters for a Citylivery companyarranged around acloistered courtyard.Timber-screened officesare behind a brick log-gia with the hall above(ph: Peter Mackinven).

The Glyndebourne language is developed inHopkins’ 2007 addition to Bryanston School inDorset, new science and maths departments housedin a three-storey building of soft red brick. The horse-shoe plan is extremely economical – this is not anexpensive building – and here is used to form a semicircular courtyard at the focus of which is a geodesic dome, perhaps paying homage toBuckminster Fuller.

The economy of the science block is in markedcontrast to the school’s main building, RichardNorman Shaw’s 1895 Queen Anne-style house forViscount Portman – a project where Shaw, with anunlimited budget and six million bricks, produced byhis own admission one of his least accomplishedworks, thus proving that architectural quality is notnecessarily dependent on the finances available.

As at Glyndebourne the sweeping brick-and-a-halfsolid lime-mortared facade with flat arches works

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architectural device. Simple yet moving in its effect,one is aware of the gravitas.

As with Kahn, Hopkins’ buildings often employthe repetition of a bay element frequently resulting,to the extent of being classical, in a refined symmet-rical plan arrangement affording absolute clarity inform and legibility in use.

This clarity is apparent through to the detail at Glyndebourne. As a student Michael Hopkinsbought a timber-framed house in Suffolk and inorder to repair it had to discover how it was original-ly constructed. ‘This gave me real insight into timberframe construction,’ he says. ‘And immediately, as aflash out of the blue, I realised that there was a strongrelationship between the way that buildings were puttogether and the way they finished up looking’.

Glyndebourne, one might suggest, has somethingof the clarity of medieval timber-frame constructionbut here translated into brick and concrete.

structurally to support the floors, but the emphasis ison the flatness and grid of the elevation rather thanthe tapering expression of vertical load paths. The useof thick, solid loadbearing masonry walls today pres-ents certain challenges with regards to Part L per-formance and here results in a thermal breakbetween the wall and concrete floor, the tenonedpoint connections expressed as a net of white squaresacross the elevation. In contrast the outer elevation,being cavity construction, is laid to stretcher bondand using cementatious mortar requires expansionjoints, here set to correspond with the pattern of fen-estration with concealed steel lintels following theline of the curved plan, in contrast to the flat archesof the courtyard. Thus, the brick bond is not a matterof decoration, but a direct expression of the build-ing’s construction. The comparison of these two ele-vations offers a profound lesson in the appropriate,but fundamentally different use of the same material

FFaacciinngg ppaaggee Bryanston School science building,Dorset (2007). A new school science departmentis housed in a three-storey building arrangedaround a semicircular courtyard.The classroomsare arranged as fingers which project from themain body of the building into the landscapebehind, allowing daylight and fresh air to penetrateinto their heart.The form of the new block aimsto make a coherent series of spaces that will forma natural continuity with the original NormanShaw house and the more recent technologyblock (ph: Anthony Weller).AAbboovvee//lleefftt Glyndebourne Opera House, Sussex(1994). Hopkins’ building replaced a private operahouse that had reached the end of its useful life.The new auditorium adjoins an Edwardian countryhouse, set in mature gardens. It occupies the samesite as the old, but has been rotated 180 degreesso that the front of house areas now lead naturallyonto the gardens.The bulk of the building was dis-guised by digging it 10 metres into the site.The1200-seat auditorium, fly tower, stage and backstage are in the centre of the building with foyerswrapped around on three levels. Glyndebournecombines traditional loadbearing brick walls, whichmatch the adjacent house, with highly finished precast concrete ceiling panels.The roof and flytower are clad in lead panels while a fabric canopyshelters the foyer (ph: Martin Charles).

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Martin Pearce is an architect and teacher at the University ofPortsmouth School of Architecture.

in dissimilar conditions, and all in the same building.Hopkins’ current project to extend the Lutyens-

designed Henrietta Barnett School at HampsteadGarden Suburb in north London is soon to com-mence on site and returns Hopkins to the area 33years after his canonical early house. Outwardly theseseem radically different, the former glass and steel,the latter brick and tile, yet the gravitas remains.

After 17 previous applications failed to proceedover a period of four decades, Hopkins Architects

won planning permission with a scheme that sees twopavilions frame the Grade II* listed Institute build-ing. Each pavilion comprises two volumes set at rightangles and locked around an L-shaped brick colon-nade. This creates new intimate quadrangles whilelinking to the existing grounds and building, a seem-ingly simple yet brilliant planning device and amodel of compositional refinement and clarity. Thisrigour extends to the eaves condition and draws onLutyens to create strong line of precast lintels toform a contrasting entablature. A projecting guttertray supported on slender steel brackets forms a cor-nice that will cast strong shadows, serving to modelthe brick reveals and piers below. Above, a steep plainclay-tiled roof draws from the language of the Arts &Crafts in Hampstead Garden Suburb, the top-lit oasthouse section accommodating drama and art studiospaces at first-floor level. An enclosing 215mm solidbrick wall is to be of handmade bricks, slightly nar-rower than standard to match the existing buildingand the intention is that the masonry will be linedinternally with hemp batts to create a sustainablebreathing envelope.

The Henrietta Barnett School follows several proj-ects by the practice that make extensive use of brick– a sheltered housing scheme for Charterhouse at aformer Carthusian monastery in London (2000) andthe Haberdashers’ Hall (2002) designed for one ofthe livery companies of the City of London, are won-derful examples of exquisite material beautifullydetailed. Michael Hopkins once said that ‘Our archi-tecture comes out of our engineering and our engi-neering comes out of our engineers’ and it is truethat he has collaborated with the very best engineer-ing minds of our time. But we are perhaps minded tothink of engineering as a product of reduction, theparing down too readily associated with the use of so-called high-tech materials – steel, glass and concrete.Great engineering is ultimately about the rigour, clar-ity and logic of how a building is made, transcendingthe particularities of individual materials and equallyapplicable to the use of traditional materials as to thelatest composite polymer.

Great engineering is also a product of refinementover time. The Romans perfected the arch over aperiod of decades, and the medieval masons did notachieve the refinements of the high Gothicovernight. Those architectures were concerned withprinciples not personalities and today, in contrastwith the early modernist avant-garde view that eachscheme should be revolutionary, we are perhapsagain getting comfortable with the idea that gooddesign is an evolutionary process requiring the itera-tion of core ideas through different projects. It seemsthat only in this way can one ever truly strive for thesetimeless qualities of building. Over the three decadesthat Hopkins Architects has been in practice, archi-tecture has been plagued by the ephemeral, yet thisoffice has remained consistent, pursuing an architec-ture of gravitas founded on enduring principles. Thisconcern with materials and making, of iteration andrefinement gives the work a remarkable authenticity.It is perhaps an approach that above all touches onthe timeless verities of architecture.

AAbboovvee Charterhouse Sheltered Housing, London (2000). Sheltered accom-modation for elderly monks in an early nineteenth century court. Founded as a medieval monastery, the Charterhouse developed as a school andalmshouses in a series of collegiate quadrangles.The two new buildings restorethe south-west corner of Preacher's Court, replacing those lost to bombing inthe second world war. Both have arcades along the court, off which are theentrances.The walls are of solid, loadbearing, English bond brick.Their open-ings, including the arcading, are structural brick flat arches (ph: Ianthe Ruthven).FFaacciinngg ppaaggee Henrietta Barnett School, Hampstead Garden Suburb (2010).Founded in 1911, the main body of the school is a Lutyens-designed Grade11* listed building, with some later additions. Since the early 1960s, 17schemes have been developed for the site of the Hopkins building, but allfailed either to reach planning or to achieve it. In this case, extensive consultation was carried out with bodies including the Lutyens Trust and the Victorian Society as well as the local authority and English Heritage.

Jørn Utzon, who died last November aged 90, was amongthe greatest architects of the twentieth century and will for-ever be remembered for the expressive shells and free formsof Sydney Opera House and, back in his homeland ofDenmark, the sublime Bagsværd church with its billowingvaults of concrete. Yet he had made his mark on the interna-tional scene well before these masterpieces with the designof his own modest family house in 1952, built in brick andtimber in Hellebæk, just outside the town of Elsinor, homeof Hamlet’s castle.

Working with the simple elements of brick and timber forhis home, Utzon wrote: ‘viewing architecture as abstractsculpture or painting for the sake of shape… can easilybecome determined by fashion and appear formalistic,whereas the purely constructive and functional basis com-bined with sensitivity to light, shade, colour and space opens

PRECEDENT Poetry from materials – Jørn Utzon’s brickwork beginnings

The late Jørn Utzon should be celebrated equally for his work withthe humble brick as with reinforcedconcrete, says John Pardey.

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up infinite possibilities’. This attitude may seem surprisingcoming from the man who inadvertently began the cult of‘signature’ building with the striking and memorable formof the Opera House, yet Utzon was wedded to the idea ofdesign being the product of ‘built’ elements rather than freeform. The shells of the Opera House in fact comprise 2250prefabricated concrete ribs, and these are clad with some4253 tiled ‘lids’ making the building one of the largest exam-ples of concrete prefabrication on earth – Utzon was alwaysconvinced that a building should evolve from its elements ofconstruction.

With the Hellebæk house, brick became a prefabricatedmodule that must not be cut and this rigour was also appliedto the standard timber sections employed – the house wasequally uncompromising in plan, with its unbroken rear wallturning its back to the cold north winds, punctured only by

UUttzzoonn HHoouussee,, HHeelllleebbæækk,, 11995500--5522‘The simple, primitive life in the country, treks into the mountains with skis or guns, sailing trips, some weeks spent with Arabs in the mountainsand the desert, a visit to North America and Mexico, the lifestyle of the Indians – all this has formed the basis for the way of life my wife and Iwanted to lead, and this follows in the design of the house’. Fifty kilometres north of Copenhagen, near the coast and in the centre of a beechforest, Utzon found a site accessed by road, though he is reputed to have persuaded the local forester to allow him to cut an entrance routethrough the forest instead. Built in yellow bricks in a Flemish bond with deep recessed mortar joints, the house reveals the influence of Kay Fisker,Utzon’s professor at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, and PV Jensen-Klint as well as the brick houses of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van derRohe.The long, narrow house is raised on a brick plinth, setting it apart from the gently sloping site and giving a horizontal dimension that beliesits modest 130 square metre floor area.The glazed south elevation brings plentiful light to the open-plan living room with its freestanding fire-place, whereas the bedrooms are simple spaces lit by skylights.

JJoohhnn PPaarrddeeyy Principal of John Pardey Architects inLymington and author of Utzon – Two Houses onMajorca (2005) and Louisiana and Beyond – the Workof Vilhelm Wohlert (2007).

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the entrance, and fully glazed to the south beneath an over-sailing roof. The house, based on the Danish tradition ofbrick building that had been revived with the 1940Grundtvig church by PV Jensen Klint and influenced byFrank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian houses, came to representwhat was to become known as Scandinavian Modernism,whose influence was destined to ripple through the world insubsequent decades.

In 1959, seven years after building the Hellebæk house,Utzon completed another essay in brick with the ‘Kingo’houses – a group of sixty-three homes just outsideHelsingor. Using the same logic of construction, set with-in individual boundaries of 15 by 15 metre square enclo-sures, each house is planned as two wings, one for livingand one for sleeping, enclosing a courtyard. The Kingohouses simultaneously evoke Danish farmhouses andChinese and Islamic courtyard dwellings – small wonderthe development came to be nicknamed ‘Arab city’ and‘Roman town’. In creating a community of houses all builtin brick with matching tiled roofs and chimneys that risedirectly from the walls resembling the wind-catchers com-mon in Islamic settlements, the impression is reminiscentof the town in Iran that Roland Rainer described as ‘madein one casting’.

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Within this uniform materiality, each house was given aunique imprint by Utzon setting the exact amount of bricksto be used for the walls of each courtyard with the simplerule that the bricklayer should build each to deal with itsindividual needs for privacy, shade, view and enclosure. Thehouses were built with state funding that set a limit of 104square metres for a three-bed house.

The Kingo houses were to form the prototype for thecourtyard housing project Utzon built in 1965 atFredensborg, another essay in brick and tile that remainsone of the most perfect housing projects in a natural andconvincing order of the twentieth century.

KKiinnggoo hhoouussiinngg,, HHeellssiinnggoorr,, 11995566--5599Frustrated in his attempt to build an earlier housing development, Utzon persuadedthe mayor of Helsingor to give him a 3.6 hectare undulating site with a pond onwhich to build courtyard-style houses within government low-cost restrictions.With a local contractor and backed by his father, Utzon built a showhouse whichproved successful, and the development proceeded in phases. Eventually 63 houseswere built, following the contours and arranged to maximise views, sunlight andshelter from the wind. Utzon, quoting Alvar Aalto, described the plan of the houses as‘like flowers on a cherry tree branch, each turning to the sun’. Four similar L-shapedhouse types were designed, with a living room and study in one wing, and the kitchen,bedrooms and bathroom in the other. Perimeter walls of different heights contain theother two sides of the 15 metre square plots.While the intended market for thedevelopment was workers at the nearby Elsinore shipyards, some of Utzon’s employ-ees moved here shortly after its completion, when the Sydney Opera House compe-tition was won.

CCrreeddiittss Photos: Seier + Seier ; plan drawings: John Pardey.

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TECHNICALo

The heat is offCan unfired clay bricks offer a low-energy alternativein masonry construction? Dr Ali Arasteh of the BDAreports on the initial findingsof a research project led by the University of Bath.

MaterialsThe project began by collating informationfrom the project partners and obtaining bricksamples in order to develop an evaluationplan to establish the material properties.

Most of the materials used in the manu-facture of unfired clay units are low-plastici-ty clays with low sulfate and chloride levelsand a large variation in the organic content.Due to differences in the shrinkage charac-teristics of clay, dimensional measurementsshowed considerable variation. Linearshrinkage was found to be a function ofambient moisture and could vary fromaround 6.5 per cent to just over 10 per cent.The net bulk density of the units was around2000kg/m3. The compressive strengths ofthe units were determined in accordance

with EN772-1:2000 on 18 samples, fourmoulded and the rest extruded, and valuesof 1.5N/mm2 to 2.25N/mm2 were recorded.

Other findingsCompressive strength is a function of mois-

ture content; the higher the moisture contentthe lower the strength (see diagram above).• There is a trend towards increasing compres-sive strength with increasing clay content.• Moisture content affects the expansion orshrinkage of unfired clay.• Denser unfired clay bricks exhibit greaterlength change than less dense bricks.

It should be noted that the expected equi-librium moisture content of unfired clay unitsis 3-5 per cent in a domestic environment.

Next stepThe next step was to look at masonry madeusing different mortars. Past experience hadshown that some brick/mortar combinationsworked well and some did not, and this wasmainly due to differences in the surface char-acteristics of different bricks. Different mor-tars, including some provided by the unit man-ufacturers, were tested and although someworked with different bricks the average bondstrength was less than 0.1N/mm2 (values lessthan about 0.2N/mm2 are considered low forstructural applications). Some thought wasgiven to the use of mechanical fixings but thisidea was abandoned for reasons of practicality,cost and lack of harmony with the concept ofearth buildings. The findings included:• Lime mortars do not achieve 0.2N/mm2.• Lignosulfate mortars have a tendency todeteriorate with time, causing cracking atbrick/mortar interface.• Lime/starch and lime/casein were not fullysatisfactory in terms of strength and long-termperformance.• Initial tests on sodium silicate mortarsproved encouraging.

– With high contents, bond was strongerthan flexural tensile strength at 14 days.

– Further tests with 8% concentrationshowed that bond strengths of about0.2N/mm2 at seven days were achievable.

Other advantages of sodium silicate mortarare that it is much cheaper and more environ-mentally friendly than cement; performanceis not affected by the amount of water in themix (mortars can be knocked up when stiff as

setting is through drying); there is no strengthdeterioration after 180 days; and powder form ischeaper to transport than the liquid form, giv-ing a lower carbon footprint. Therefore, it wasdecided to adopt sodium silicate as the bondingmaterial for the remainder of the project.

Wall testsWalls made with unfired clay units and sodi-um silicate mortar were tested in compressionand flexure. The results were:Compressive strength tests to BS EN 1015-1

Mean value: 2.49N/mm2

Characteristic value: 2.07N/mm2

Compressive strength: 2.99N/mm2

Flexural strength tests to BS EN 1052-2Tests perpendicular to bedjoints

Mean value: 0.43N/mm2

Characteristic value: 0.38N/mm2

Tests parallel to bedjointsMean value: 0.57N/mm2

Characteristic value: 0.44N/mm2

Bond strength at 28 daysMean value: 0.435N/mm2

Characteristic value: 0.375N/mm2

It is worth noting that the variation incompressive strength is remarkably low andin other tests quite acceptable. This results ina ‘low’ standard deviation which is very ben-eficial for low-strength construction materi-als. Furthermore the compressive strengthof the wall is close to the compressivestrength of the units, which proves the suit-ability of sodium silicate mortar; it’s role is tobond the units and not to affect the strengthdisproportionately.

Unfired clay bricks were first used inMesopotamia around the third millenniumBC although the use of ‘earth masonry’ pre-dates this by far. Almost a third of the world’sinhabitants live in houses made of earth andin Germany alone there are more than twomillion buildings in which earth has beenused as a construction material.

The use of earth masonry declined after theend of the nineteenth century with the devel-opment of new construction materials.However, the level of energy use associatedwith the production of masonry units hascreated interest among manufacturers,researchers, architects and engineers to devel-op further the properties of earth masonry orunfired clay units. Furthermore the ability ofunfired clay to act as a buffer in controlling thehumidity and temperature changes that typi-cally occur within dwellings, together with itslow environmental impact, makes it an attrac-tive construction material in dealing with theenvironmental challenges that lie ahead.

The ProjectThe Brick Development Association and threeof its member companies, Ibstock Brick,Hanson Building Products and Errol BrickCompany signed up as partners to a technolo-gy research programme funded by theDepartment of Trade & Industry in November2006. The project leader is the University ofBath and the other partners are LimeTechnology and ARC Architects. This featurereports on the project and its findings to date.

Shrinkage testsTests were carried out on some walls over agauge length of 200mm, with horizontal andvertical changes measured (see diagrambelow left). Shrinkage values in the two direc-tions follow the same trend and magnitudeand appear to have stabilised at about 0.37 percent after a period of two months. Aroundhalf of ‘final’ shrinkage occurs one day afterconstruction and therefore the magnitude ofshrinkage after construction is only half ashigh. For example, a 2.4 metre high wall ofunfired brick would be expected to shrink byabout 9mm; half of this would have occurredin the first day.

Clay plastersClay plasters led the development of themarket for commercial mass-produced clayproducts in Germany over the last 15 years.As well as aesthetics there are technical ben-efits such as the regulation of internal airhumidity, an important factor when upgrad-ing the environmental performance ofmany twentieth century buildings. The useof clay plasters in the UK has been limitedto expensive imported materials from main-land Europe. Recent research at theUniversity of Bath in collaboration withARC has shown that many dry ground clayscurrently used in brick manufacture in theUK can be easily adapted to form workableclay plasters, with perhaps 10 per cent hav-ing the natural qualities of fine grading,workability and colour needed to produce ahigh quality commercial material.

BBeellooww Typical UK-produced unfired clay bricks.RRiigghhtt Unfired brick construction is a tradition thatstretches back as long as man has built shelter.FFaarr RRiigghhtt Chart showing percentage shrinkage of unfiredbrick over time.

BBeellooww lleefftt Home using unfired brick internally.BBeellooww mmiiddddllee aanndd rriigghhtt Walls were tested to failure indifferent modes.

ConclusionsThe findings to date have demonstrated thatunfired clay units can be used in the construc-tion of domestic loadbearing walls as well aspartitions. Such walls will effectively controlinternal moisture and humidity and provide ahealthier living environment. Their thermalmass can effectively store and release heat outof phase with the outside temperatures, thusproviding more comfortable indoor tempera-tures. And they have a low carbon footprint.

FFuurrtthheerr iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn BDA tel 020 7323 or emailbrick@brick.org.uk