Brick Essays

Udo Garritzmann
THE TECTONICS OF
BRICK ARCHITECTURE

BETWEEN THE TECTONICS OF LOAD-BEARING

AND THE TECTONICS OF DRESSING 1
BRICK ARCHITECTURE
1 I wish to thank Jan Peter Wingender and the Brick Tectonics research group for the stimulating
debate and suggestions that have greatly contributed to this essay. Also I would like to thank architect
Joris Molenaar; and Dirk Jan de Vries, professor in the history of building, for the kind exchange of
thoughts and knowledge on brick outside the confines of this research group.
113
Brick. An Exacting Material

In the context of architectures renewed interest in brick as a building
material the term brick tectonics has surfaced as one, with which the materials
proper use seems to be indicated. The terms frequent use suggests that its
meaning is well defined. However at closer inspection, one finds that it is not
readily clear what brick tectonics precisely means.

This essay is an attempt to engage in a fundamental investigation of what
the meaning of brick tectonics could be. To begin with the terms brick architecture
and tectonics will be separately reconsidered. Following the theories of Karl
Btticher and Gottfried Semper I will propose to distinguish at least two kinds
of tectonics. The subtitle of this essay accordingly refers to them as the tectonics
of load-bearing and the tectonics of dressing. Herewith the term tectonics, which
usually is associated with load-bearing, is expanded and differentiated.

Arising from this one can also distinguish in brick architecture two
types of tectonics offering two distinct design approaches for the contemporary
architect. An intermezzo will deal with the relatively recent phenomenon of
the expansion joint. It arguably constitutes the biggest challenge to both types
of brick tectonics. In the conclusion the influential position of the German
architect Hans Kollhoff, who also has a considerable practice in the Netherlands, will be addressed. Hans Kollhoff s particular position on the tectonics
of load-bearing incorporates an important principle of the tectonics of dressing:
the principle of masking. It affords his architecture to draw on the classical
tradition while being built with contemporary construction techniques.

In a dictionary of building terminology, brick architecture is defined
as architecture that uses brick structurally, as a stacking material of small
dimensions. The brick performs a load-bearing function, and therefore is not
just filling or dressing. The dictionary entry concludes that the application
of reinforced concrete makes it possible to let whole brick masses not fulfil a
load-bearing function, but to suspend them from the load-bearing structure
or use them only as filling material. Here one cannot talk about brick architecture in the strict sense of the word.2

It is probably clear that few buildings in the Netherlands that appear to
be built in brick today would actually meet the qualification of brick architecture
as stated in the quote above. Recent brick architecture usually refers to buildings that use brick precisely as dressing or filling.

It should not come as a surprise then that this dictionary focuses primarily on architecture from pre-1900, and that its authors were or still are
involved in the preservation and restoration of Dutch architectural heritage.
The entry is interesting nonetheless, because its two opposing criterialoadbearing and dressingwere also two key terms in the discussion of tectonics
in German architectural theory in the mid-19th century.3
TECTONICS: KARL BTTICHER VERSUS

GOTTFRIED SEMPER
2 Haslinghuis, Janse, Bouwkundige Termen, Verklarend Woordenboek van de Westerse Architectuur- en

Bouwhistorie, Leiden 2005, 5th edition, pp. 4749, (1997, 1st edition), translation by the author.
3 Combining these aspects of tectonics with our initial definition of brick architecture would either
lead to a tautology (the tectonics of brick architecture = load-bearing + load-bearing brick) or to a contradiction (the tectonics of brick architecture = non-load-bearing dressing + load-bearing brick).
4 As a general introduction to both Btticher and Semper see: Oechslin, Werner, Stilhlse und Kern,
Zrich/Berlin 1994. As an introduction to Btticher: Mayer, Hartmut, Die Tektonik der Hellenen, Stuttgart/London 2004. As an introduction to Semper: Mallgrave, Harry Francis, Gottfried Semper, New
Haven/London 1996.
5 Hermann, Wolfgang, Gottfried Semper: In Search of Architecture, Mass. 1998, pp. 139152. Chapter
Semper and the Archaeologist Btticher.

Before reflecting on the meaning of tectonics in contemporary brick
architecture, I will recapitulate the meaning of tectonics itself. I will do this
by way of the theories of Karl Btticher and Gottfried Semper.4 These authors
were the most important protagonists in the original tectonics debate. Semper
launched a heated polemic against Btticher when he discovered that Btticher
had anticipated his principle of dressing with his concept of art form. Wolfgang Hermann has carefully investigated the conceptual similarities and differences between Btticher and Sempers thinking.5 Both authors had similar
views on Hellenic architecture. Even Sempers use of the term tectonics seems
to be indebted to Btticher.

Essential to my argument here, however, is a difference between Btticher and Semper that Hermann points out. It concerns the relevance that is
attributed to material as a formative factor, which is of decisive importance
for Semper but not for Btticher. When Semper conceptualizes the influence
114
Tectonics of Cladding
of material on form-making, he also considers the tools and procedures that

were applied to the material in the process of form-making.

With this difference in mind, I will discuss Btticher and Semper as
representatives of two distinct tectonic positions: the tectonics of load-bearing
and the tectonics of dressing.
BTTICHER: THE TECTONICS OF LOAD-BEARING
115
The Tectonics of Brick Architecture

The architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel was an important inspiration behind
Bttichers 1852 magnum opus Die Tektonik der Hellenen.6 It was Schinkels
design of the Altes Museum that had triggered Bttichers interest in the aesthetic principles of Greek antiquity in the first place. And it had been at Schinkels instigation that Btticher was teaching the courses free-hand drawing
and ornament drafting at the Bauakademie in Berlin. Since Schinkels Architektonisches Lehrbuch remained unfinished and the notes for it unpublished, the
students of the Bauakademie used Die Tektonik instead, and as such saw it as
the missing theory behind Schinkels architecture. Btticher viewed Schinkels
architecture as one of the sparse contemporary examples in which the essence
of ancient Greek Architecture had survived.

Die Tektonik der Hellenen was an effort to explicate the principles of
classical Greek architecture. Btticher proposed the complementary terms
core form (Kernform) and art form (Kunstform) to conceptualize the appearance of a building in relation to the structural forces at work in its physical
building parts. While the former corresponds to the structurally necessary
parts of a building, it is the latter that makes the structural workings of the
core form actually perceptible and intelligible. Here, art form can be seen as
a synonym for proper adornment (or ornament). Btticher considers an ornament proper if it expresses the structural forces of the core form in its decoration. Both core form and art form are mutually dependent; it is inconceivable
for Btticher that one could exist without the other.

Btticher categorizes art forms according to the structural performance
that they articulate. He distinguishes the following in Greek architecture:
symbols for the crest, symbols for load-bearing and supporting in conflict
(cyma), symbols for free-standing stem- and stipe-like columns, symbols for
belts, symbols for conjunctions of whole structural parts (abacus), symbols
for parts floating above space and free-floating parts (geison).

Each building element takes a precise position in the buildings larger
whole, which is conceived as a complete system of all constituent parts. Architecture is beautiful when it expresses the structural workings of its building
components in its ornamentation. Btticher thought of this as a timeless
Btticher, Karl, Die Tektonik der Hellenen, 2 volumes, Potsdam 18441852, atlas.
Copperplate engraving 2, from Karl Boetticher, Die Tektonik der Hellenen. Btticher shows how he imagined the derivation of the Doric, Ionic and Lesbian cyma: The weight of the abacus is bending down a
row of leaves. In Bttichers view this is a symbol of the load-bearing and the load-borne in conflict.
principle and normative rule. This aesthetic idealism derived from the structural forces resulted in a decoration that could be rationally defended. In the
19th century, this position went against the current of decorative practice that
favoured the arbitrary choice of eclectic styles on the basis of subjective taste.
SEMPER: THE TECTONICS OF DRESSING

Gottfried Semper was concerned about the unbridled proliferation of
decoration and ornament in the 19th century as well. But instead of choosing
sides in the ongoing style debate, Sempers 1863 magnum opus Style in the
Technical and Tectonic Arts; or, Practical Aesthetics aims to reveal the formal
principles inherent in any style by concentrating on the material and technical
preconditions of form.
THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE
referred to in the essays title are: the hearth, the mound, the roof and the enclosure. The hearth, or fireplace, is considered the first and most important element that had to be protected from the hostile elements of nature by the
three other elements of architecture.7

Each of the four elements of architecture could be related to one of the
applied arts. Semper thoroughly scrutinized this idea in Style. The hearth is
associated with ceramics; the mound is related to stonecutting (stereotomic); the
roof is attributed to tectonics (carpentry); and the enclosure is related to the
textile arts.

Semper asserts that in the applied arts the formal motives had come into
being long before architecture had become monumental, and that architecture
had received its entire formal repertoire from the vocabulary of the applied arts.

The textile arts, which were preceded by wickerwork, played a central
role in Sempers argument. It is epitomized in the principle of dressing, which
perhaps is the best-known passage in Style. The following passage from The
Four Elements of Architecture already contains its main thoughts:
Wickerwork, the original space divider, retained the full importance
of its meaning, actually or ideally, when later the light mat walls were
transformed into clay, tile, brick, or stone walls. Wickerwork was the
essence of the wall. Hanging carpets remained the true walls, the visible
boundaries of space. The often solid walls behind them were necessary
for reasons that had nothing to do with the creation of space; they were
needed for security, for supporting a load, for their permanence, and
so on. [] Even where building solid walls became necessary, the latter
were only the inner, invisible structure hidden behind the true and
legitimate representatives of the wall, the colourful woven fabric. The
wall retained this meaning when materials other than the original were
used, either for reason of greater durability, better preservation of the
inner wall, economy, the display of greater magnificence, or for any
other reason.8
This argument is reiterated in Style, but the term enclosure is substituted for
the term space. Weaving becomes associated with establishing domestic space,
the means to make a home, the inner life separated from the outer life. Once
more, Semper stresses that weaving preceded the solid wall and that the textile
wall and space are independent from the (load-bearing) construction. One can

In 1851, roughly a decade before the publication of Style, Semper had
proposed in his essay The Four Elements of Architecture a general theory of
architecture in the form of a new version of the primordial hut. The four elements
7 It may be assumed from Sempers later theory that elements in this context should not be read as
material elements or forms, but rather as motives or ideas, as technical operations based in the applied
arts, as Harry Francis Mallgrave has pointed out. See Harry Francis Mallgraves introduction in: Semper,
Gottfried, The Four Elements of Architecture and other Writings, Cambridge/New York, 1989, p. 24
8 Semper, Gottfried, The Four Elements of Architecture, in: ibid., p. 104
116
117
even detect an attitude here that opposes the idea of expressing the load-bearing structure: Scaffolds that served to hold, secure or support this spatial
enclosure had nothing directly to do with space or the division of space. They
were foreign to the original architectural idea and were never form-determining elements to start with.9

Semper supports his argument by pointing to the etymology of words
denoting spatial enclosure in Germanic languages. It turns out that they all
have a textile root. Semper gives examples such as Decke (ceiling, cover),
Bekleidung (cladding, dressing), and the similarities between Wand (wall) and
Gewand (robe) and Zaun (fence) and Saum (seam).

Semper argued that the earliest dwelling enclosures had an origin in
textile. For Semper, this origin constitutes the essence of the wall as a formal
principle and should be maintained even if the material from which the wall
is built changes. Semper cites Assyrian and Greek stonewalls, which were
covered with wooden panels containing textile motives, as examples.

In contrast to Bttichers tectonics of load-bearing, which means that
the (ornamental) appearance of a building should refer to the structural forces
at work in its physical building elements, Semper conceptualizes a tectonics,
which I should like to refer to as the tectonics of dressing. It is concerned with
the constructedness of the dressing itself.
In Style Semper examines the becoming of form from two points of
view. The first is concerned with the influence of the material service or use
that is intended, whether actual or presumed, and taken in a higher symbolic
sense.10 Semper considers this a timeless aspect of form, which he explores
for each craft in a chapter with the subtitle General-Formal. The association
of the walls origination with the textile craft implies for Semper that the general-formal aspects of textile should be responded to in the design of walls
and faades also today. They should always refer to the formal DNA of textile,
the first spatial enclosures.

The second point of view that Semper deals with in Style concerns the
becoming of form and the influence of the material used to produce it, as
well as of the tools and procedures applied. In contrast to the timelessness of
the general-formal aspect this aspect of form changes with historic time and
geographic place. Each craft is dealt with in a chapter with subtitle Technical-Historical.11 The technical-historical aspects of form are considered a
reason for stylistic differences as well as the motor of stylistic evolution.

118
Plate from Gottfried Semper, Der Stil, 59 Relation of Costume to Architecture, Another connection
[between costume and sculpture] is clearly evident in the shape of Egyptian capitals illustrated here:
they are decorated with lotus blossoms inserted in the same way that ladies of that country ornamented
their heads by fastening stalks of these flowers in their hair or behind their ears.
9 Semper, Gottfried, Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts, or: Practical Aesthetics, Getty Research
Institute, Los Angeles 2004, p. 248.
10 Semper, Style, p. 107.
11 A third pole is the aesthetic concept that complies with the general laws of beauty, and the (genius)
architect with his individual inclinations.
Sempers focus on use, material, tools and procedures entailed that he was
often accused of technical determinism and later even viewed as a predecessor
of functionalist thought in the modern movement. This however has to be
put in perspective. Semper considers use, material, tools and procedures as
important aspects in the becoming of artistic form, but not as the sole factors.
Moreover Semper does not advocate the expression of technical aspects in
artistic form. On the contrary, tectonics of dressing, rather, favours the mastery
of technical constraints and technical necessities in such a way that all technical aspects of form-making become invisible. Semper articulates this concern
in an oft-cited passage on masking as a principle in arts, curiously placed in
a footnote:
But masking does not help when the thing behind the mask is not right
or when the mask is no good. If the material, the indispensable, is to be
completely destroyed in the artistic creation in the sense meant here,
then the material must be completely mastered. Only complete technical
perfection, only the judicious and proper treatment of the material
119
according to its properties, and above all only the consideration of these
properties in the act of shaping form can cause the material to be forgotten, can liberate the artistic creation from it []12

FROM TECTONICS TO BRICK TECTONICS

Both Bttichers and Sempers accounts of tectonics were actually discourses on ornamentation. In Bttichers tectonics of load-bearing, the ornamental dress is an idealistic representation of the structural forces at work in
the physical building parts that are covered by this ornamentation. In Sempers
tectonics of dressing, the ornamental dress refers to the formal principles that
are implied by the construction of the textile dressing itself and came into being
with the emergence of the textile arts, the original spatial enclosures.

Btticher bases his theory on observations of ancient Greek temples.
These were built in natural stone and covered with a layer of stucco. Semper
observed that this layer of stucco was originally colourful. He believed that
constructing something in solid stone with a dressing of stucco was the ideal
way of building. Such structures were thoroughly solid and durable, while the
colourful pigments of the dressing achieved an almost immaterial state of
being. The appearance of the building was therefore freed of most technical
constraints.13 Neither Bttichers nor Sempers writings about tectonics deal
with brick as a building material in particular. This section discusses the implications of brick as a material.

In Europe north of the Alps, the use of brick emerged between the 12th
and 14th centuries, first in some church buildings, where the use of natural
stone had been common up till then. Using brick instead of natural stone
means limiting the expressive possibilities.14

The dictionary entry that prompted these reflections has the following
to say about brick as a material:
[] The nature of the building material [brick] implies that mouldings
are kept simple, straight and inside the building volume, and that a
number of decorations (such as small free-standing colonnades, pinnacles, finials, crockets) are only used by exception. Parapets and suchlike

120
12 Ibid., p. 439.
13 Natural stone covered with a layer of stucco dressing constitutes for Semper the ideal building
material. I have argued elsewhere that this thought leads to a deadend for the evolution of form and
constitutes a contradiction in Sempers theory. Garritzmann, Udo, From the Colour of Dressing to the
Dressing in Colour and Back Again, in: Komossa, Susanne, Rouw, Cees, Hillen, Joost, eds. Kleur in de
Hedendaagse Architectuur/Colour in Contemporary Architecture, Amsterdam 2009, pp. 172197.
14 The emergence of brick in Northern Europe happened simultaneously in several nuclei independent of each other. It is assumed that members of certain convents brought the knowledge of brickmaking from visits to branch convents south of the Alps back to Northern Europe. See: Perlich, Barbara,
Mittelalterlicher Backsteinbau in Europa: Zur Frage nach der Herkunft der Backsteintechnik, Imhof, Petersberg, 2007.
have a closed appearance similar to battlements. The constraints are

especially felt with the treatment of entrance and window openings.
Instead of plasticity, we get nuances of colour in the wall surfaces, which
are often subdivided by arches, and, in addition, the white plaster of the
backgrounds (in friezes, niches, windows) create a strong contrast. []15
The first masons were actually stonecutters, who initially transferred building
conventions associated with natural stone to brick.16 Often, decorative elements were still executed in natural stone. Dutch architecture in the period
1500 to 1700 was still characterized by the combination of brick and natural
stone, which was employed in the well-known horizontal layers (the Dutch
call them layers of bacon, as they resemble the contrasting stripes in bacon),
cornerstones and tympanums.

Eugen Gugel was a German architect and the first to be appointed professor of architectural design in the Netherlands at the Polytechnical School
of Delft in 1862 (today TU Delft). He made a link between the German tectonic
debate and the brick architecture of the Dutch Renaissance. His 1869 book
on the history of building styles throughout architectural history, Geschiedenis
van de Bouwstijlen in de Hoofdtijdperken der Architectuur, is indebted to Bttichers Tektonik.17 Gugel appreciates the architecture of the Dutch renaissance
for the expression of tectonic qualities in the brick faades. He cites as examples
of this the relieving arches above window and door openings, and the decorative brick patterns in the load-free fields below arches.18 This characterization
most notably applies to town halls, guild houses and domestic architecture.

Domestic architecture in the Low Countries was originally a wood
construction erected by carpenters who also happened to be shipbuilders.
In the 15th century, it became obligatory for partition walls in cities to be
made of brick. When brick gradually also replaced the wooden cladding of
the faades, brick craftsmanship was used for representative purposes. Besides
bricklaying in a proper bonding pattern, brick craftsmanship meant making
arches (semi-circular arches, segmented arches, Dutch or strait arches, basket-handle arches) and diverse forms of adornment such as accompanying
rows of brick above porticos and window openings, the bending of runners,

121
15 Haslinghuis, Janse, Bouwkundige Termen, Verklarend Woordenboek van de Westerse Architectuur- en

Bouwhistorie, Leiden 2005, 5th edition, p. 47, (1997, 1st edition), translation by the author.
16 Perlich, Barbara, Mittelalterlicher Backsteinbau in Europa: Zur Frage nach der Herkunft der Backsteintechnik, Imhof, Petersberg, 2007.
17 Gugel refers not only to Btticher but also to Semper. It seems that he was not concerned about the
conceptual differences held by these two authors.
18 Brouwer, Petra, De Wetten van de Bouwkunst, Rotterdam 2011, pp. 313318; Petra Brouwer actually
points out that this positive evaluation of Dutch renaissance architecture only occurred in the second
and later editions of Gugels Geschiedenis.
eaves friezes, arched friezes, band friezes such as saw-tooth frieze, console
frieze, dog-tooth course, rowlock course, soldier course, pilaster strips and
plinths, linings with brick patterns.

The well-known Dordtse Gevel, a type of faade developed in the city
of Dordrecht between the 16th and late 18th centuries, is an excellent example
of a representative brick faade. Building a Dordtse Gevel was considered a
masterpiece that would allow masons to become master craftsmen as it
comprised all the trades necessary techniques. Most prominent was the acute
brickwork of a decorative clover pattern in the field beneath the window arch.
The Dordtse Gevel perfectly illustrates the tectonics of load-bearing that Gugel
appreciated in the Dutch renaissance style.

In terms of load-bearing, it is interesting to note that the Dordtse Gevel
does not display the masons craft on the ground floor, but on the levels just above.
This can be explained by the fact that the ground-floor faade in Dutch architecture of that period (the Dutch have a separate word for it, pui, which is often a
shop front) remained often the territory of the carpenter. The representative
brick faade rests on a wooden sub-structure, a bressumer supported by posts,
floating above the ground floor. If the brick faade started to lean, as it sometimes
did to compensate for the previous wooden faades floor-by-floor stepped cantilever effect, wooden beams also counteracted the additional horizontal forces.

When the tectonics of load-bearing turns to brick as a material, it does not
express the actual structural forces working in the various building parts as much
as the ornamentation of a Greek temple would. It rather articulates the presence
of various building parts that fulfil different structural functions. A brick faade
according to the tectonics of load-bearing is structured by the expression of floors
and walls, of posts and lintels, and of supporting and supported building parts.

It is more difficult to find historic examples of the brick tectonics of
dressing in the Netherlands. But to start with, one could say that all bonding
patterns resemble textile patterns in the first place. They develop a formal
motive (the bonding pattern) from the technical necessity of joining the bricks,
just as weaving patterns emerge within the technical constrains of warp and
weft.19 The use of two contrasting colours of brick intensifies the resemblance
of the bonding patterns to ones used in textile. The most decorative brick
patterns, in which the function of the bonding is subordinate, evoke the strongest association with textile patterns. In regard to the tectonics of load-bearing
in the Dutch Renaissance discussed above, one might add that it is the tectonics
of dressing with its contrasting decorative brickwork that facilitates the reading
of the other brickwork as load-bearing.

Example of the Dordtse Gevel with tectonics of load-bearing in the brickwork. Note that elaborate brickwork
starts only from the first floor upwards; on the ground floor it is supported by a wooden substructure.
19 It is probably difficult to maintain that in Northern Europe bonding patterns indeed developed with
the impetus of textile representation, as Semper would have argued.
122
123
These decorative textile brick patterns can be part of a faade according to

the tectonics of load-bearing, as we have seen in the example of the Dutch
Renaissance. Earlier 14th-century examples of decorative textile brick patterns
in the Netherlands are to be found in the Petruskerk in Zuidbroek, the Mariakerk in t Zandt, the Donatuskerk in Leermens and the Petrus en Pauluskerk
in Loppersum, all in the province of Groningen.

I am not aware of early brick tectonics of textile in the Netherlands that
cover larger parts of a faade, such as can be found in Persian architecture.
Examples include the minaret of the Friday Mosque in Damghan (11th century), the Tomb of Sheik Shibli in Damavend (12th century) and the Arg of
Karim Khan in Shiraz (17761777).

The first brick buildings in the Netherlands to use the tectonics of dressing
across the entire mass of a building seem to belong to the Amsterdam School,
a movement that emerged contemporaneously with modernism. The latter
embraced the new construction methods that used steel and reinforced concrete in search of a completely new aesthetic devoid of ornament and decoration.
The Amsterdam School, by contrast, seems to have enjoyed the new decorative
possibilities rendered possible for brick by the new construction techniques
and non-bearing faades. Its buildings are characterized by unconventional
bonding patterns in various combinations, as well as the exploration of bricks
sculptural possibilities to sometimes extravagant extremes. This resulted in
dynamically shaped building volumes with a strong overall monumentality
that were nonetheless highly picturesque. The Amsterdam School, which was
itself a reaction against the prevailing rationalism of Berlage, was later in turn
criticized for its irrationality and straining for a picturesque effect that accepted
the disengagement of the faade from the plan.

One of the critics was the architect Ad van der Steur, who characterized
the decorative use of brick related to the Amsterdam School in the Boymans
Museums 1941 catalogue. Brick is no longer used as a constructive material,
wrote Van der Steur, but has a merely decorative function, in which the limitation of a straight surface is modified into an erratically formed enclosure.
Moreover, toothing, wall projections, and even suspended brick ceilings have
been introduced The strange material usage in the post-war period is related
to a desire for abundance, [and] the frivolity of those days that also led to
Dadaism. It does not have a deeper social meaning, which explains why this
movement disappeared as promptly as it appeared.20

But the tectonics of dressing and its decorative use of brick does not
necessarily imply the sculptural eccentricity that the Amsterdam School employs.
Mariakerk, t Zandt, province of Groningen, 13th century
20 Van der Steur, Ad, De Baksteen tusschen 18901940, in: Museum Boymans Rotterdam, Nederland
Bouwt in Baksteen 18001940, catalogue, Rotterdam 1941, p. XVIII + XIX (translation by the author);
also: H. M. Kraayvanger, De Nederlandsche Bouwkunst na Berlage, in: ibid., p. XIII.
Museum Boymans, Rotterdam (19281935). Architect: Ad van der Steur
124
125
The building of the Netherlands Trading Society, Rotterdam (19411950). Architect: C. Elffers and A.A.
van Nieuwenhuyzen
North German Expressionism, a counterpart of the Amsterdam School especially influential in Hamburg, Bremen and the RhineRuhr region, uses the
tectonics of dressing in its brickwork to similar decorative effect, though less
erratically and with more restraint in most of its buildings.

There are more discreet examples of the tectonics of dressing in the
Netherlands, such as Museum Boymans (19281935) with its beautiful variation
of the monk bond by the aforementioned Van der Steur. A present-day beholder
would expect its decorative bonding pattern to consist of two stretchers and
two headers for a course of conventional height, and alternating stretcher and
header for a course with bricks on edge. However, what appear to be bricks
on edge are actually bricks with the height of a double course. Indeed, the
brick walls happen to be load-bearing in conjunction with concrete auxiliary
constructions. Van der Steur himself classifies the use of brick in his museum
as purely structural, with additional concrete structures, such as floors,
and additional wall reinforcements made of light concrete pillars that can
reduce the load of the walls.21

21
Ibid., p. XVI + XVIII
126
The fact that the brickwork is (in part) load-bearing does not contradict its
classification as the tectonics of dressing. What matters is the aesthetic appearance of the brickwork, not whether it really is load-bearing. The unconventional
decorative bonding pattern with its pattern on a medium scale is important
for adding detail to the large, otherwise mostly unstructured faade. The absence
of piers on the large surfaces of the exterior brickwork as well as the almost
flush detailed windows supports the allusion to the tectonics of dressing.

The building of the Netherlands Trading Society in Rotterdam (19411950)
by C. Elffers and A.A. van Nieuwenhuyzen is another example but in a more
traditional style. It is one of a few bank buildings that were among the first
post-war constructions in the city of Rotterdam, and it contrasted starkly with
the modernist style of the time. The bank building resembles a monolithic
brick mass with faades structured by what at first sight look like conventional
pilasters comprising two windows. On closer inspection, however, one realizes
that the building mass continues above and below the pilasters, which do not
rest on the ground. Rather, they appear to be attached to the building mass
like a large textile network. Also, the brickwork between the pilasters protrudes
from the main mass of the building as if attached like dressing. The breastwork
is articulated as a frame filled with decorative brickwork resembling diagonally
interlacing textile bands.

Other examples of unconventional bonding patterns, which achieve a
characteristic decorative pattern all-over, are the Unilever office building
(1930) by H. F. Mertens and the St. Dominicus church (19571960) by Evert
and Herman Kraayvanger, both in Rotterdam.

The brick tectonics of dressing develops the articulation of the faade
from the constructedness of the dressing itself. It realizes its aesthetic concept
through the technically necessary joining of bricks. The brick tectonics of
dressing explores the creation of decorative patterns on a smaller and on a
larger scale. The bricks can be stacked in all possible directions for this purpose.
The effect of decorative pattern making is enhanced through the use of bricks
of different sizes, kinds and colours and the careful employment of relief.

INTERMEZZO: TECTONICS AND THE CHALLENGE

OF EXPANSION JOINTS

The introduction of thermal wall insulation, which happened approximately in the 1970s as a consequence of the first oil crisis, causedliterallycracks in brick faades.22 The thermal detachment of the brick dressing
from its load-bearing substructure causes differences in thermal deformation

22 This at the time new phenomenon influenced our aesthetic experience of more than just brick
faades.
127
St. Dominicus kerk, Rotterdam (19571960). Architect: Evert and Herman Kraayvanger
between the two. Various faade segments may also settle in different ways,
because different loads are put on the supporting substructure. If the faade
segments are not given enough space to move, cracks inevitably follow.

It took a little while for the implications of thermal insulation to be
fully understood. The solution to the crack problem was to provide sufficient
expansion joints along the faade. In the Netherlands, the technical requirements for expansion joints are compiled in two recommendations for the
construction of brick faades and stone constructions compiled by the consultancy CUR.23

It seems, however, that in most buildings one evil is cured by another.
The brick faade that used to have a continuous surface, suggesting a monolithic building volume, is now cut into pieces that are separated by numerous
expansion joints filled with mastic. In most cases, expansion joints appear to
be the solution for a technical requirement that is only thought of in hindsight.
It seems they are forced on the brick faade when it is too late for aesthetic
Unilever office building, Rotterdam (1930). Architect: H.F. Mertens
23
CUR-Aanbeveling nr. 71, Constructieve aspecten bij ontwerp, berekening en detaillering van gevels in
metselwerk (CUR Recommendation no. 71, Constructional aspects in the design, calculation and detailing
of brick faades) and CUR-Aanbeveling nr. 82, Beheersing van Scheurvorming in Steenconstructies (CUR
Recommendation no. 82, Control of crack formation in stone constructions).
128
129
considerations. Currently expansion joints are the biggest challenge to brick

tectonics, whether load-bearing or dressing.

The design of a brick faade in the pre-expansion joints era focused on
the composition of the open and closed parts, and any protruding or receding
elements, that had to be brought into accordance with the modular sizes of the
brick and bonding pattern used. Today, the additional pattern of numerous
expansion joints has to be considered as well. An aesthetically satisfactory brick
faade incorporates the design of the expansion joint pattern into the aesthetic
concept of the whole faade. In other words, the expansion joint pattern should
not be viewed as a technical necessity, but as part of the overall aesthetics.

The following quote from Textiles: A. General-Formal in Sempers
Style describes a formal principle that holds true for brick bonding patterns
and should also be applied to the assemblage of the dilatated tectonic plates.
A most important and prime axiom for artistic practice is most simply,
most originally, and at the same time most cogently expressed in the
seamthe principle of making a virtue out of necessity. It teaches us that
anything that is and must be patchwork, because the materials and
means at our disposal are insufficient, should not be made to appear
otherwise. If something is originally separate we should characterize
it not as one and undivided but, by deliberately stressing how the parts
are connected and interlaced toward a common end, all the more eloquently as coordinated and unified.24
THE TECTONICS OF LOAD-BEARING AND THE

TECTONICS OF DRESSING TODAY
24 Semper, Style, p. 154.

25 Kollhoff, Hans (ed.), ber Tektonik in der Baukunst, Braunschweig/Wiesbaden, 1993.
130

Hans Kollhoff is probably the most important inspiration for contemporary architects associated with the tectonics of load-bearing. In 1991, he
organized a conference ber Tektonik in der Baukunst (On tectonics in the art
of building).25 In his own contribution, Hans Kollhoff advocated renewed
attention on the interdependency of appearance and construction, in which
the appearance of a building should appeal to the human senses by evoking
a tectonic feeling based on gravity and solidity.

In retrospect, the conference seems to have been the foundation for
Kollhoff s work in the ensuing years. Increasingly drawing on the classical
tradition, Kollhoff addresses contemporary prefabricated building techniques
and develops his tectonics of load-bearing in a bas-relief faade system. By
organizing the classical elements of architecture in such a bas-relief, the expansion joints are disguised by letting the tectonic plates slide over each other.
It is interesting to note a contradiction in the relationship between the tectonics

of load-bearing as articulated in the faade and the actual presence of the
load-bearing structure in the building. Contemporary building techniques
(mostly reinforced concrete) allow for much bigger spans than are appropriate
for faades built upon classical principles. Therefore, pilasters can suggest
the presence of a load-bearing structure when in fact there is none.

Hans Kollhoff solves this contradiction by adopting a modification of
Sempers principle of dressing that was originally introduced by Adolf Loos.
In Kollhoff s words: The aim is not the visualization of the construction itself,
but that which reminds us of it. [] If Loos talks about construction, he means
the appearance of construction, totally independent of the actual constructional
circumstances. [] The seemingly antagonistic pair, appearance and construction or art and technique, is viewed as something complementary.26

The tectonics of load-bearing of this particular position is not about
honesty of construction, but about the remembrance or assumption of a
load-bearing construction that is supposed to make sense to the human sensory system. As such, it adopts the tectonics of dressings principle of masking,
however with a different prefix.

The tectonics of dressing does not want to be reminded of the load-bearing structure, even if a load-bearing structure is present, nor does it want to
be reminded of any other technical necessities. It achieves the first by masking
the load-bearing structure. It achieves the second by the complete technical
mastery of the masks construction. The tectonics of load-bearing, by contrast,
wants to be reminded of the load-bearing structure according to the position
of Hans Kollhoff, even if it is not present. If necessary, its art form corrects
the core form. A mask of load-bearing tectonics can camouflage the absence
of a core form.

Both the tectonics of load-bearing and the tectonics of dressing are
concerned about the appearance of a building in relation to its construction.
The tectonics of load-bearing is concerned about the appearance of a building
in relation to its load-bearing structure; the tectonics of dressing is concerned
about the appearance in relation to the construction of the dressing itself.

The tectonics of load-bearing is a position that is consciously pursued
by a particular group of architects. Does this mean that most other architects
adhere to Semperian thinking, consciously or intuitively? This seems rather
unlikely. Certainly it is true that all buildings in our part of the world, where
thermal insulation is an obligation, are technically dressed. This has also
created tremendous freedom for the design of faades, and sometimes this
has resulted in a technically disengaged position. But this cannot be the outcome

26 Ibid., p. 15, translation by the author.
131
of Semperian thinking, as I hope the argument of this essay makes clear.

Sempers tectonics of dressing is certainly not free of engagement when it
comes to the actual construction of a faade.

Designing a brick faade according to the tectonics of dressing, without,
however, subscribing to the expression of load-bearing, is a challenge that has
not been taken up by many contemporary architects yet. The number of buildings mentioned in this publication that fall under the tectonics of load-bearing
seems to confirm this. Perhaps architects who are inclined to engage in tectonic
thinking find the load-bearing approach more productive, more fruitful and/or
more practical than the dressing approach.

Perhaps this is due to the shift in scale that occurs once an entire building
is conceived with the tectonics of dressing. The tectonics of load-bearing
draws upon classical elements of architecture that also include medium-scale
elements. This medium scale is yet to be devised for the tectonics of dressing.
Perhaps it is also the legacy of Dutch modernism with its tradition of rationality
that makes the tectonics of load-bearing more appealing than the tectonics
of dressing, which finds pleasure in decorative patterns that cannot necessarily
be rationally justified.

In any case, there seems to be huge, as yet unexploited potential for the
tectonics of dressing. If architects who do not necessarily subscribe to the
tectonics of load-bearing were nonetheless to explore the interdependency
of appearance and construction with as much energy and success as their
supposed antagonist, one could look forward to a vivid diversification of the
culture of brick tectonics.
132
Harrie Vekemans
LEGISLATION AND
BRICKWORK FAADES
IN A HISTORICAL
PERSPECTIVE
Brickwork has been used as construction system for more than 10,000 years.
The most incredible structures have been built with it, but furthermore, all
over the world simple brick houses can be found. The use of brick has also
lead to beautiful buildings in the Netherlands, in which the craftsmanship of
both architects and masons has been constitutional. The possibilities of construction in brickwork were primarily based upon empirical knowledge until
the end of the 19th century. It was only towards the end of that century that a
shift took place in the Netherlands towards rationalisation and even scientification of architecture and construction1. In the same period new inventions
like the brick cavity wall enter the building practice and from the start of the
20th century legislation and regulations start to have a significant influence
on architecture and construction.

This timeline gives a chronological overview of the change in legislation
and regulations and the application and production of brickwork in the Netherlands. The first legislation and regulations (Housing Act and Model Building
Regulations) were still primarily based on the improvement of the basic quality
of dwellings. It is, however, the moment that influence starts to be exercised
in terms of legislation and regulations on the design and construction of brickwork. Whereas the first building regulations for the implementation of the
Housing Act were still relatively brief about masonry constructions, the later
versions imposed increasingly more regulations and preconditions. The Technische Grondslagen voor Bouwvoorschriften (Technical Principles for Building
Regulations) from 1955 proved to be a decisive step in this process. At first
instance, it was still a somewhat artificial way of connecting construction
theory and practice. This was, however, continued in terms of the development
of specific masonry standards and other, direct and indirect influential regulations on masonry construction. The increasing production, as well as the

See the book: De wetten van de bouwkunst (The Laws of Architecture) by Petra Brouwer
133
Jan Peter Wingender
BRICK DRESSES
The use of brick has risen remarkably in Dutch architecture since the end of
the last century. The rediscovery of this age-old material coincided with an
(inter)national heyday, which Bart Lootsma framed in the book Superdutch.1
The book is characteristic of a period with great appreciation for distinctive
building concepts in which the unique and photogenic image of the building
plays an important role. The book contains approximately forty-five buildings
only one of which, strangely enough, is executed in brick. Set against the background of Superdutch, the uniformity of brick buildings is particularly striking.
This uniformity may explain the absence of the material in the book, but the
architects who have been building with brick since the 1990s are certainly not
unconnected from the spirit of the times. They are also interested in the concepts and individual expression of their buildings. This leads one to suspect
that the aforementioned uniformity of brick buildings has its origins elsewhere.
It raises the question of how this has come about: why does a brick building
look the way it does?

This question sparked off the analysis, conducted with students of the
Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, of fifteen Dutch brick buildings constructed after 1994.2 By examining and redrawing the original architects
drawings, the way these buildings were constructed is revealed. The survey
offers insight into the influence that structural preconditions and the tendencies
of contemporary building practice have on the design strategies of architects.3
1
Superdutch: New Architecture in the Netherlands, Bart Lootsma, Thames & Hudson, 2000.

2 The analyses were previously presented in the exhibition Brick Dresses held in 20102011 at the
Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, VKO Ceramics Centre Velp, de Dag van de Bouwkeramiek (The
Day of Building Ceramics) Amsterdam, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Amsterdam University
of Applied Sciences and MADE Tilburg.

From spring 2010 to summer 2012, students from the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture made digital
models based on drawings. In this way, they painstakingly united the role of draughtsman, structural
researcher and digital building contractor. Without their work, the exhibition and this publication would
not have been possible. Special thanks to: Laura Achterberg, Narda Beunders, Elizabeth Bonavera, Jesse
de Bosch Kemper, Pascal Hennebergue, Marjan van Herpen, Margot van Honert, Monique Hutschemakers, Mark Keizer, Matic Pajnik, Femke Popinga and Ivar van der Zwan.

3 The concept of design strategies comes from Rafael Moneos Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies
in which he clarifies design strategies as: refer[ing] to the mechanisms, procedures, paradigms, and
formal devices that recur in the work of architects. The architects whose work is included in the analysis
have built an important part of their oeuvre in brick. Through in their practice, knowledge, experience
and discoveries are passed from one project to the next, which make the strategic design approach with
regard to brick possible.

Rafael Moneo, Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects, The
MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004, ISBN 0-262-13443-8.
205
It uncovers the distinctive patterns and dilemmas underlying the apparent

uniformity of brick, and it poses a question about the possibilities architects
derive from that same uniformity? Because, upon closer inspection, the differences in the use of the material by architects appear to be remarkable.
This essay bears on the survey and focuses on the collective domain of our
profession, the intersection of building techniques and architectural design.
But to understand the recent revival in the use of brick, we must first take a
step back in time.
A QUIET REVOLUTION

The rich history of building in brick was presented at the exhibition
Nederland bouwt in Baksteen 18001940 (The Netherlands Builds with Brick
18001940) held 1941.4 The exhibition at Museum Boijmans in Rotterdam
celebrated an exemplary Dutch building material and its significance for
national architecture. The timing and the location of the exhibition were,
however, unfortunate. The trauma of the neighbouring bombed city centre
and the subsequent occupation in combination with the alleged nationalistic
tone of the exhibition backfired on the curators, particularly Dirk Hannema,
the director at that time. In retrospect, the exhibition represented a turning
point. Brick, the pre-eminent national building product, which had been
unequivocally exalted up until that moment, became increasingly entangled
in the postwar controversy between modernity and tradition. Furthermore,
brick was connected with conservatism and nationalism in that controversy.
It was positioned as a material that did not deserve a place in modern, forward-looking architecture. However, the actual use of brick was not, of course,
over and done with; the scale of postwar reconstruction was simply too great
and the methods of building too pragmatic for that to happen. As a consequence, brick was frequently, yet silently, used. The rich prewar tradition of
brick construction continued far into the 1950s and played a large role later
in the architectural movement of the Bossche School. However, reflection on
the use of the material increasingly retreated into the background in prevailing
Dutch postwar architecture debates.

In the midst of this silence, the architectural application of brick changed
drastically. The use of brick for foundations, primary load-bearing structures,
faades, interiors and civic works is still clearly visible in photos from the bombed
centre of Rotterdam. Brick was a multi-faceted building material with a broad
structural and architectural significance, but this changed quickly. By the end
of the nineteenth century, the cavity wall had already been introduced into
4
Nederland bouwt in baksteen 18001940 (The Netherlands Builds with Brick 18001940), Museum
Boymans van Beuningen Rotterdam, 1941.
206
207
Brick Dresses
Cover from: Nederland bouwt in Baksteen 18001940, Museum Boymans, Rotterdam (1941)
Introduction
Bombed city centre, Rotterdam, 1941
Dutch building practice, and, as a result, a separation arose between the main
load-bearing structure and the cladding of a building: a fundamental distinction
in architecture that was commented upon in those years by Adolf Loos.5 This
distinction between structure and cladding was more marked in postwar building practice in the Netherlands as a result of the increasing use of concrete for
foundations and load-bearing structures. The distinction between structure
and cladding also became a difference in material: concrete for the structure
and brick for the cladding. With the introduction of insulation in the cavity
wall in the 1970s, the distinction between structure and cladding also assumed
a thermal character. Buildings evolved into a warm, insulated concrete loadbearing structures fitted with a cold, rain screen brick jacket.6 Brick silently
changed between 1960 and 1980 from a multifaceted building material into
a frequently used cladding material. Our brick buildings became brick dresses.

Since the 1980s, the use of brick has generated interest from a generation of architects who are not directly connected with the postwar controversy.
In a focused quest for the historical anchoring of architecture, the interaction
with the existing city received increasing attention.7 This was particularly
related to a change in the type of assignment architects were undertaking,
which extended extended from the building of new districts to the renewal
of the existing city and the redevelopment of harbour fronts and city centre
industrial areas. Brick turned out to be a useful material for the new generation
of architects in achieving a connection between the existing city and the new
developments and expansions. At the same time, technically superior ranges
of brick became available from the brick industry, and the choice of colour,
texture and size of bricks increased considerably. The industry promoted the
material directly to architects with the campaign mooi is gemetseld in baksteen
(beauty is dressed in brick).8 Brickwork remained easy to execute for contractors, and the prices for materials and processing remained stable and predictable. There was also a renewed interest from clients in the material due to its
low maintenance and the fact that it ages well, but especially because brick
was still appreciated by the Dutch private clients who would have to buy a
large proportion of the newly constructed houses. All these factors made the

Bombed city centre, Rotterdam, 1941
208
Brick Dresses
209
5 In particular, in his essay Das Princip der Bekleidung from 1898/Adolf Loos, Gesammelte Schriften
herausgegeben von Adolf Opel, 2010 Lesethek Verlag.
6 For an overview of structural development, see: H. Veenemans, De techniek achter het stapelen:
overzicht historisch perspectief 19122012 (The Technique Behind Stacking: Overview Historical Perspective 19122012). Included in this publication.
7 See also the interviews in Rogier van den Bergs text Hoe de baksten en het ambacht terugkeerde in
de Nederlandse stedenbouw (How Brick and Craftsmanship Returned to Dutch Urban Planning). Included
in this publication.
8 For this development, see also Louise Schouwenbergs text The City Tells Stories. Included in this
publication.
Introduction
material interesting for the sharply increasing building output from 1990.
The favourable reception for Piraeus, a residential building in the Eastern
Docklands in Amsterdam by Hans Kollhoff and Christian Rapp9 can be seen
as a sign of the broader re-appreciation of brick. From that time, the use of
brick represents a theme that forms the basis for the development of the
signature style of a generation of architects. They formulated, in practice, an
answer to the postwar quiet revolution with new architectural strategies for
the use of brick as a cladding material. This shift in the use and significance
of the material raises the question whether the structural role of brick, in its
metaphorical and literal meaning, has also been truly exhausted as a result?
THE CLADDING OF THE CONSTRUCTION
In Massive- und Filigranbau (Solid and Filigree construction), the

introduction to Constructing Architecture, a handbook10, Andrea Deplazes
reduces building to two approaches that are complementary from a structural
and constructional viewpoint: the Massivbau (solid construction), which
arises from structural stacking of modulesfor example, with natural stone
blocksand Filigranbau (filigree construction), which arises from combining
a skeleton with cladding. Brickwork belongs, historically speaking, to solid
construction, since it is created by stacking bricks. Brick structures and spans
in the form of vaults are comparable with those made from natural stone.
However, it is the development of the cavity wall that also includes brick as
cladding under the category of filigree construction, with a distinction between
structure and cladding. As a result, brick has become an ambivalent material.
It plays on both building traditions simultaneously. Architects make grateful
use of the confusion arising from this. Terms like permanence, robustness
and sturdiness easily find their way into the explanation of contemporary
buildings with brickwork faades. In his essay Firmitas,11 Jacques Herzog
provides a critical commentary on this phenomenon: Firmitas wouldnt be
a separate category on the same level as venustas but rather a special case,
an absolute value that cannot be achieved, that will remain a dream and is
interesting only as such. Brick hints at the structure of a building, and Herzog
is, of course, correct when he states that this has become part of faade design.
Brickwork is no longer about structure, but unavoidably evokes the image of

structure as a result of its historical appearance. We thus arrive at a classical
theme in architecture, namely the expression of the law of gravity by means
of a structure in the faade of a building.

In 1991, the architect Hans Kollhoff addressed this theme during his symposium Tektonik. Bau-Kunst Heute? and in his contribution Der Mythos der
Konstruktion und das Architectonische.12 In his lecture, Kolhoff discussed the
relationship between the structure and the cladding of a building.
Die Bekleidung als Haut ist Teil des Krpers und damit gestalterischer
Willkr entzogen. Die Haut steht in einem delikaten Verhltnis zur Konstruktion. Diese wird nicht zur Schau gestellt und nicht zugedeckt. Sie scheint
durch, im wrtlichen und bertragenen Sinn. Ziel ist nicht die Visualisierung
der Konstruktion an sich, sondern das an sie Erinnernde.
Kolhoff emphasises the role of the observer and his or her perception. The
aim is an execution of the faade that evokes a memory of the underlying
structure and spatial construction of a building. In the words of Kollhoff, they
shine through. With regard to brickwork faades, this relationship between
cladding and structure is evident as a result of the historical use of the materialand the memory of the structural use. The size of the bricks and the
stacking of them into brickwork is a way of building that allows one to imagine
easily. The observer can easily relate to the faade of a building in a physical
sense and imagine how a structure of a building is made.

The degree to which the way a structure shines through is a theme
that keeps returning in the projects in this book. As a result of its historical
significance, the material obviously challenges architects to take a position.
When designing brick faades, the position that architects take varies. These
positions can be clarified on the basis of the nineteenth-century discussion
which architecture historian Petra Brouwer cites in her study De wetten van
de bouwkunst, Nederlandse Architectuurboeken in de negentiende eeuw (The
Laws of Architecture, Dutch Architecture Books in the Nineteenth Century).13
In that discussion, the origin of real architecture is traced back to three
archetypes: the cave, the hut and the tent. The originator of this school of
thought was Quatremre de Quincy. He introduced the three archetypes as
the source of three systems of constructions. The three archetypes can be
placed alongside the previously made distinction of Massiv- en Filigranbau
9
Piraeus, Levantkade Amsterdam. Design Hans Kollhoff with Christian Rapp. Commissioned by
Woonstichting De Doelen (De Doelen Housing Association) Amsterdam. Design 19891991, execution
19911994.

10 Andrea Deplazes, Massiv- und Filigranbau, in Architektur Konstruieren vom Rohmaterial zum
Bauwerk, Ein Handbuch. Birkhuser Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-7643-7188-9

11 Edited version of a lecture held by Jacques Herzog at the ETH Zurich, October 1996. Herzog & de
Meuron: Firmitas.

In: Gerhard Mack (ed.). Herzog & de Meuron 19891991. Das Gesamtwerk. Band 3 (The Complete Works.
Volume 3), Basel/Boston/Berlin, Birkhuser, 2000, pp. 222225.
12
ber Tektonik in der Baukunst, Hans Kollhoff, Vieweg & Sohn Verlaggeschellschaft, 1993. A version
of his contribution was also published in Oase 47 Bekleding, uitgeverij Sun, ISBN 0169-6238.

13 Petra Brouwer, De wetten van de bouwkunst (The Laws of Architecture), p. 227, Nai Uitgevers, 2011,

ISBN 978-90-5662-771-1
210
211
Brick Dresses
Introduction
(massive and filigree construction), whereby the cave coincides with one
extreme of the stereotomy, or massive construction, and the tent with the
other extreme: the tectonics of filigree construction, in which a clear distinction in material arises between the structure (wooden poles) and the lining
(fabric). The hut, made from wood, for example, occupies an intermediate
position in which wood continuously switches function and expression between
the two standard criteria of structure and cladding. At first sight, the hut appears
to be made from one material without distinction between structure and cladding. However on closer inspection the hut consists of wooden columns and
beams for the structure and thin wooden planks for the cladding. The intermediate position of the hut, and the switching of the material between structure
and cladding, mirrors the ambivalent character of brick. Placed alongside the
recent production of brickwork faades, the question cave, hut or tent? is
helpful in understanding the way in which the underlying structure shines
through in the cladding of the building. From the perspective of the middle
position of the hut, the architects of the projects analysed have explored the
possibilities of the expression of the cave and the tent. The image of brick
faades ranges from the expression of structure and mass on the one hand,
in the works of Herman Zeinstra and Jac. de Brouwer, for example, and the
image of a textile cladding on the other hand, in the works of Rudy Uytenhaak
and Marlies Rohmer. The positioning among these architects is not dogmatic,
they play with various expressions within their oeuvre.14 Brick is technically
speaking not part of the main construction of a building anymore, but it has
not lost its structural role in the metaphorical sense, namely as an expression
of the structure. Given its long history, the application of brick forces architects
to determine a position on its ambivalent character when designing a faade.
However, liberated from its structural yoke, it does raise the question whether
brick has become interchangeable with other cladding materials. Can stuccowork, for example, be replaced with brickwork in a faade?
THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CLADDING

A brickwork faade is created through the stacking of bricks. In that
respect, a brickwork faade does not differ essentially from a brick load-bearing
structure. The many possibilities, but also the limitations, in the design of
brickwork faades are implied by the very stacking of the bricks. For that reason,
brickwork faades have their own structural and constructional patterns; they

212
entail a unique sturdiness or firmitas like load-bearing structures.15 The brickwork in the faade is design and beauty, or venustas in the words of Herzog,
but at the same time it cannot deny its own structural patterns that derive
from the stacking of the bricks.

Regarding these patterns, Loos noted in The principal of cladding that
each and every material has its own vocabulary of forms and no material can
appropriate the forms of another. Forms develop out of the way a particular
material is produced and the ways in which it can be worked; they develop
with and out of the material.16 Making a hole for a window or a door in a brickwork surface, the termination of a brickwork faade on the ground level and
against the roof, building a corner or a corbel in the faadethese are elements
that cannot be treated separately from the formal patterns that arise from the
stacking of the bricks. In essence, this is expressed in the headers and course
height of the brick used, to which the entire dimensions and proportioning
of a brickwork faade can be traced back.

In addition, two other matters exert their own structural and constructional pattern. First of all, the relative weakness of the prevailing half-brick
masonry faade, the maximum height of which is around ten metres, makes
it necessary to support the faade at regular intervals. The horizontal and
vertical loads of the faade are transferred to the main load-bearing structure
of the building through secondary steel structures. These secondary steel
structures are also necessary for spanning larger wall openings and parapets.
Furthermore, the thermal separation of the main load-bearing structure and
the brickwork faade means that the expansion and contraction of the faadeas
a result of warming and coolingdiffers from the insulated main load-bearing
structure, which has a relatively constant temperature. This difference is compensated for in practice by providing the brickwork faade with expansion
joints, which is actually a form of controlled cracking. A brickwork faade is
not homogeneous as its appearance often suggests, but is actually built up of
separate surfaces, each of which leans on the main load-bearing structure.
An architect will inevitably have to take these preconditions into account
when designing the brickwork faade. As a result of this, the structure and

14 We asked this question in the interviews. Architects recognise the role of brick as cladding, of course,
but they do not take up explicit positions regarding the question of the expression of the underlying
structure. They seem to be more interested in the freedom that the material offers for exploring possibilities and articulating these. They do not refer to the underlying theoretical discussion and the fundamental positions.
Brick Dresses
213
15 Since 2005, direct practice with building materials has become a part of my teaching to students. I
developed these material explorations together with Machiel Spaan in a series of workshops, in particular
the workshop Tectonics in Building Culture: Brickwork, as part of the Erasmus Intensive Programme,
2008. In the workshop, walls were developed from the stacking itself by means of dry stacking without
a prior design. The structural singularity of the stacking was sometimes painfully visible as a result of
the walls falling down without there being any external load other than the dead load of the wall itself.
Machiel Spaan and Jan Peter Wingender, Tectonics in Building Culture: Brickwork, 2008.
16 Based on the continuation of his text, Loos would strongly condemn the cladding of a brick structure
with a brick faade, but that is beside the point.
Das Princip der Bekleidung, Adolf Loos, Gesammelte Schriften herausgegeben von Adolf Opel, 2010. Lesethek
Verlag, ISBN 973-3-99100-015-0
Introduction
building techniques will partly determine the design. It is not, therefore, only
the why but also the how that determines the ultimate appearance of a faade.
In order to make the appearance of a brick building convincing, the architect
must ensure both are inextricably linked; the way the structure shines through
in the cladding is directly linked to the construction of the cladding itself.
A CLASSIFICATION OF THE PROJECTS

The catch-up effort that architects have made in recent years has taken
place at the intersection of engineering and architecture, between the technical
necessities of keeping a brickwork faade upright and the design intentions of
the architects. They perform a balancing act in continually jumping from one
legthe technique, to the otherthe design. To limit a survey to the outer ten
centimetres of a building, as many publications have done, is insufficient in
understanding the balancing act, and the design strategies in brickwork faades
arising from it. It would, quite literary, lack depth. One has to dig in deeper to
understand the connection between the much discussed expression of the
outer brickwork dress and the underlying insulation, secondary steel faade
supports and primary main load-bearing structures. On the basis of the architectural and detail drawings delivered by the architects,17 faade fragments
from fifteen buildings were drawn afresh for this survey. The layers of the main
load-bearing structure, the insulation and the windows, the secondary structural supports, the prefabricated brickwork elements and finally the brick
faade itself have been made visible for each building. The positions of the
expansion joints and horizontal secondary supports are also drawn in elevation,
as a result of which the structure of the brickwork faade becomes visible.

The buildings are classified on the basis of common structural characteristics. This classification elaborates on the contribution of Van der Steur to
the catalogue of the exhibition Nederland bouwt in Baksteen 18001940 (The
Netherlands Builds with Brick 18001940).18 Van der Steur distinguishes
between two main directions, namely the pure Dutch development and the
development under various influences. Pure development is understood to
mean the structural use of brick exclusively. The subcategories decorative,
filling material, cladding material and imitation of the old are covered
under development under influences. This is actually about the use of brick
as cladding in relation to concrete and steel main load-bearing structures.
The terms filling and cladding still have a structural basis. The categories
decorative and imitation of the old are based on the design intentions of
the architects. Following the classification of Van der Steur, all buildings in
the survey fall entirely within the categories cladding and decorative. The
last aspect appears, however, to be of a less transitory nature than Van der
Steur assumed in his text. The faades can be classified according to three
parameters: the structural relationship between the brick faade and the
main load-bearing structure; the combination of brick with other materials,
such as concrete; and, finally, the combination of prefabricated brickwork
elements with brickwork made in situ. The survey can be broken up into five
categories according to these parameters.19

The first category consists of faades built entirely in situ. This is the
most common way of making a brickwork faade. The faades are constructed
traditionally, with an inner leaf covered in insulation, an air cavity, and a cladding that is executed in half-brick masonry. Steel lintels replace the traditionally
elaborated brick elements, such as rowlock courses and arches above windows
and doors. Additional secondary steel constructions such as wall supports are
placed behind the brickwork in order to transfer the vertical loads in the brickwork faade to the main structure of the building. Due to the difference in
thermal movement and the placement of the wall supports, various expansion
joints are placed in the brickwork faade.

The second group consists of entirely self-supporting brickwork faades.
The brickwork is only connected with the main building structure by wall ties
that transfer the horizontal (wind) load. By executing the brickwork one brick,
or one and half bricks thick, the faade can transfer all vertical loads to the
foundations. The secondary steel constructions from the first category can
be omitted here. The faade is stronger and better able to absorb its own
thermal expansion. However, vertical expansion joints remain necessary in
large planes due to the thermal movement of brickwork.

In the third form, the brickwork is combined with elements of prefabricated concrete. These serve as lintel or wall supports and make the secondary
structural facilities visible in the faade. They are often combined with concrete

19 This classification is helpful in understanding the mutual differences between brick faades, but it
should also be noted that projects are sometimes eligible for different categories. When classifying, the
determining structural-constructional choices of the architect were considered. For example, brickwork
faades with three layers, such as the great courtyard in Ypenburg van Rapp, are in principle self-supporting.
However, they were not included in this category because the self-supporting character was not a conscious design choice, but dictated by the technical standard in the Netherlands. The conscious use of
prefabricated lintels is, for example, much more decisive for the design of Rapp. This is in contrast, for
example, to the building on the Constantijn Huygenstraat in Amsterdam by Tony Fretton. This includes
prefabricated parapets, but these are part of a completely self-supporting faade; the latter was the
dominant point of departure in the faade design.
215
Introduction
17 The choice for the examples is partly pragmatic in nature. In order to be able to make the analysis
drawings, the construction drawings and details were needed. My thanks go out to all architects who
generously made all the drawings and details available, without their trust the analysis would not have
been possible.
A. van der Steur, De baksteen tusschen 18901940 (The Brick Between 18901940), Nederland bouwt in
18
Baksteen 18001940 (The Netherlands Builds with Brick 18001940), Museum Boymans Rotterdam 1941.
214
Brick Dresses
elements that fulfil no structural role, but which arise from the design of the
faade. The combination of brick and concrete harks back to the use of natural
stone elements in brick buildings. Elements such as lintels, sills, weather cornices, string courses, plinths and reveals of doors were often executed in natural
stone for technical, practical and aesthetic reasons. The combination of brickwork and concrete was also a separate category for Van der Steur. Brick was
seen as a filling element of a concrete main load-bearing structure. Insulation
and thermal breaks did not yet play a role in that. This combination developed
into concrete elements that fulfil a secondary structural function in the faade.
The technical construction of the faade does not actually differ from a traditional brickwork faade. The limited structural possibilities of half-brick faades
and the need for expansion joints in the faade continue to exist.

In the fourth category, there are prefabricated brickwork elements,
mostly lintels and wall supporting string courses, combined with brickwork
made in situ. This combination is frequently applied in practice. The prefabricated elements consist of concrete elements into which whole bricks are
embedded, or onto which brick slips are glued. The Dutch practice of pointing
the brickwork joints creates an almost invisible transition between prefabricated elements and brickwork made in situ. In the case of a maximum of three
stories, the prefabricated elements have a structural role as lintels above the
openings. With higher buildings, a secondary faade support is necessary
every two stories. In this case, the prefabricated concrete parts are connected
to the main load-bearing structure of the building, as a result of which a separate secondary structure with steel wall supports is unnecessary. From the
viewpoint of the design, a motive for this form of prefabrication is the homogeneity of the appearance. For example, one can avoid visible steel profiles
above the window openings. The construction of special brickwork patterns,
such as vertical brickwork, is labour intensive. Therefore the application of
prefabricated elements with these patterns is also beneficial for the speed of
construction and the costs involved.

In the last category, the brick faade consists entirely of prefabricated
elements. In the faades, the brickwork is mounted and no longer constructed
in situ. The prefabrication of faade-filling brick elements was mainly developed
in the postwar residential building production in the Netherlands. The building
method with heavy faade-filling elements was especially interesting from
an economic and production perspective. Although this building method fit
well in the modern idea of industrialisation, architects in the postwar years were
unable to come up with an architectural design answer to this application. When
opting for prefabrication, design and construction techniques are intertwined
in a far-reaching way in recent examples. The decision for prefabrication is
therefore taken early in the design process. The projects form a new generation
of prefabricated brickwork faades whereby, in contrast to the postwar examples,
the lightness of the cladding is, surprisingly enough, emphasised.

The structural analyses and the classification of the projects offer insight
into the reciprocal relationship between building and construction techniques
and the design of brickwork faades. The answer to the question, Why does
a brickwork faade look the way it does? is also implicit therein. The design
intentions of the architect cannot be seen separately from the way in which
the faade is made. From the abstraction of the volume to the expression of
the brickwork faade as a textile encasement, from a cave to a tent, in order
to arrive at a consistent and convincing image, the architect must incorporate
structural and construction technique into the architectural design. This relationship between the design and technique of brick faades will come even
more clearly into focus in the coming years as a result of two developments.
On the one hand as a result of increasing attention regarding sustainability,
and on the other hand, due to the increasing technical possibilities in the
production of bricks and the prefabrication of brickwork.
BETWEEN SUPPORT AND CLADDING
216
217
Introduction
Brick Dresses

Since the introduction of the Dutch building law, requirements have
been set with regard to energy performance. In 1991, this established a requirement for a minimum insulation value of Rc 2.5 m2 K/W. Over the years, this
requirement has almost doubled to the 2015 requirement of Rc 4.5 m2 K/W.
These rising requirements have led to increasingly thicker and technically
better insulation materials in recent years. Until now, this has only influenced
the distance between the inner leaf and the brick outer leaf of a cavity structure
and, therefore, on the transfer of wind load by means of the wall ties. However,
a break-even point is approaching. With the increasing perfection of the insulation, interruptions in it will determine the ultimate performance of the entire
faade. Isokorbs for anchoring balconies and galleries, and the secondary
steel structures supporting brickwork faades, will begin to form the thermal
weak points of the faade. In Swiss building practice, the use of such interruptions has already become practically impossible with the MinErgie/EcoPlus
standard. The question also increasingly arises whether steel structures with
a limited lifespan are desirable in a brick faade with an inherently much longer
lifespan. The ultimate sustainability of a faade is, indeed, determined by the
weakest link. Under pressure to make faades more sustainable, the usual
traditional solutions using secondary steel structures to keep the brick dress
upright will eventually become impossible. The practical solution of directly
gluing 3cm-thick brick strips on insulation materials are already being adhered
to in practice. Viewed with suspicion by many architects, this development

fundamentally questions the role of brick. As a result of the gluing, the inherent
logic of stacking as the foundation for a brick structure, both technically and
architecturally, has become obsolete. The trusted image from which brick
derives its significance is disappearing definitively. Anything goes, just as
with tiles. So why would we still act as if it were brickwork? Another objection
to this development concerns the sturdiness of the faade, because this is
determined by the insulation materials and not by the bricks. Many architects
also doubt if glued brick strips will remain intact over time: a brick faade with
dents is a nightmarish vision. An alternative solution could gain significance:
the self-supporting faades that are described in the second category. These
have no secondary structures and are thermally detached from the main
load-bearing structure, which would create a high performance insulation
without interruptions. This is possible, in principle, with a half-brick faade
in buildings up to three floors, as is customary in Dutch building practice.
Higher buildings require a thicker brickwork faade, and this, in turn, offers
the potential to support galleries and balconies, as a result of which isokorb
connections, for example, would be prevented. The extra investment is repaid
in energy-saving, but also in practical sustainability. It delivers sturdy faades
that withstand time well. From this perspective, the projects discussed here
by Herman Zeinstra and Tony Fretton can be seen as possible precursors to
a new development in Dutch architecture.

Since the 1980s, brick factories have invested in further perfecting techniques for producing brick. Specific project productions and specially shaped
bricks and sizes are increasingly often the standard. This development also
follows on from the recent desire for ornamentation and decoration in architecture. As a result of the use of specially shaped bricks, decorative patterns
and the accenting of special elements of a building, such as in an entrance,
are perfectly possible. The distinction between coarse and fine ceramics is
blurring, and the market is changing from supply to demand driven productions.20 There seems to be no end in sight, for the time being, to the proliferation of possibilities that are forcing architects to choose, and therefore to
further articulate a design. The processing of brick in prefabricated elements
is also growing enormously. The examples of Heren 5 and Rudy Uytenhaak
demonstrate the transition from traditional, heavy faade-filling prefabricated
elements to a light filigree use of prefabricated brickwork. These prefabricated

218
20 For a more extensive analysis of this, see also Louise Schouwenberg, De stad vertelt verhalen: Over
technische innovatie in de baksteenindustrie en het veranderende beeld van de stad (The City Tells Stories:
technological innovation in the brick industry and the changing image of the city). Included in this
publication.
Brick Dresses
faades emphasise the textile qualities of brick as a cladding material. The

previously mentioned inclination for decoration and the use of patterns among
architects and the greater public will only further reinforce this development.
A next, spectacular step in this direction is visible in the research and work of
the Swiss architects Gramazio & Kohler at the ETH Zrich.21 As a result of
the efforts of a robot that stacks bricks on the basis of given coordinates, it is
possible to develop patterns in brickwork that avoid the traditional brickwork
bonds. The bond is necessary when processing bricks by hand, because it
determines exactly where the mason will place the following brick. Without
a bond, the mason is helpless in a certain sense. By stacking with the robot,
this need disappears and seamless patterns are possible. The traditional repetition of stack-patterns in brickwork is making way for a faade-filling pattern
without repetition. Graphic images are finding their way into brickwork faades
that are comparable, for example, to paintings on a stuccoed faade.
THE ELEGANCE OF A BRICK DRESS
21
219
Introduction

New buildings have to acquire a position in the history and development
of a place. Brick is being assigned a mediating role in this by many Dutch architects. It connects the new to the existing in the city by means of the continuity
of the material. Herein, to a certain extent, lies the significance of brick as a
cladding material. The examples in this book demonstrate, above all, that
this connection, within the restrictions that the material entails, offers architects the freedom to develop a personal and perceptible signature in the design
of the faade without causing alienation from the environment. The brick
dresses mediate, just like pieces of clothing, between the expression of the
individualboth the building as well as the architectand the conventions
of the environment.

The limitations of the material, but also the possibilities that emerge
due to the developments in the field of sustainability and prefabrication, make
it clear that when architects design their brickwork faades, they must determine a position again and again at the interface of engineering, construction
and design. Design by the thinking of the making as the Smithsons pointed
out. That is not new. It is a constant, if not the basis, in the development of
architecture. It points to the collective domain of our field. All architects wrestle
with the same problem. That collective wrestling offers a counterbalance for
the Superdutch image of architecture as merely an expression of individual
concepts and artistic ambitions. The materials used and the manner in which
buildings are constructed determine to a substantial degree how they will look.
For the research by Gramazio & Kohler, see also www.dfab.arch.ethz.ch
In the projects presented, architects connect the design of brickwork faades

to the constructional engineering preconditions that are dictated by the choice
of material: architecture and engineering become inextricably linked in these
inspiring examples. Again and again, architects seek out the precarious balance
between structural consistency on the one hand, and the consistency of the
sought-after architectural image on the other.

That precarious balance between technique and design, which the projects bear witness to, is recognisable to the observer and alludes to the concept
of elegance.22 This is not elegance in the fashionable sense, although it is
tempting to consider that in relation to a brick dress. It has more to do with
the elegance that the mathematician Henri Poincar saw in a mathematical
demonstration.
Es ist die Harmonie der verschiedenen Teile, ihre Symmetrie, ihr schnes
Gleichgewicht; in einem Wort: alles, was Ordnung schafft, was uns erlaubt,
die Dinge klar zu sehen und sowohl das Ganze wie auch zu gleicher Zeit die
Details zu berblicken Kurz, das Gefhl der mathematischen Eleganz ist
nichts anderes als die Befriedigung, welche uns eine gewisse bereinstimmung zwischen der gefunden Lsung und den Bedrfnissen des Geistes bietet,
und auf Grund dieser bereinstimmung kann uns die Lsung als neues
Werkzeug dienen. 23
Jan Peter Wingender
STANDARD
BRICKWORK FAADES
An elegance that arises at the moment when technique and design can no
longer be distinguished from each other; when the solution to a technical
problemsuch as a banal expansion jointand the overall design of the faade
coincide. Elegance, in the words of Poincar, is also a balance that liberates
the needs of the mind. Not those of the architect, but those of the observer.
The image only convinces when the arrangement of a brickwork faade can
be understood from the greater whole to the smallest detail. And, following
on from the idea of Poincar, that the solutions which underlie this satisfying,
elegant balance form the collective basis in order to be able to take the next
step in the aforementioned development of brickwork. The ongoing development of brick as a cladding material allows us to take up a position again
and again between the firmitas and venustas of the faade. Finding a convincing
image for brickwork, as the cladding of the structure, which simultaneously
gives expression to the structure of the cladding itself.
22 For an analysis of the concept of elegance, I would like to refer to Phillip Eschs article, Die bereinstimmung von Form und Inhalt, Werk, Bauen + Wohnen 5, 2010.
23 Henri Poincar, Wissenschaft und Methode, Leipzig, 1914.
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
CENAKEL TOWERS
LANGERAK, FIELD 6 AND 11
IJBURG BLOK 56
FUSION MOSQUE
220
Brick Dresses
221
222
226
230
234

Brick Essays

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originalbeschreibung:

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Brick Essays

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Udo Garritzmann

BETWEEN THE TECTONICS OF LOAD-BEARING

Brick. An Exacting Material

TECTONICS: KARL BTTICHER VERSUS

2 Haslinghuis, Janse, Bouwkundige Termen, Verklarend Woordenboek van de Westerse Architectuur- en

of material on form-making, he also considers the tools and procedures that

BTTICHER: THE TECTONICS OF LOAD-BEARING

The Tectonics of Brick Architecture

SEMPER: THE TECTONICS OF DRESSING

THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE

The Tectonics of Brick Architecture

The Tectonics of Brick Architecture

have a closed appearance similar to battlements. The constraints are

15 Haslinghuis, Janse, Bouwkundige Termen, Verklarend Woordenboek van de Westerse Architectuur- en

The Tectonics of Brick Architecture

The Tectonics of Brick Architecture

These decorative textile brick patterns can be part of a faade according to

Mariakerk, t Zandt, province of Groningen, 13th century

Museum Boymans, Rotterdam (19281935). Architect: Ad van der Steur

The Tectonics of Brick Architecture

Ibid., p. XVI + XVIII

INTERMEZZO: TECTONICS AND THE CHALLENGE

The Tectonics of Brick Architecture

Unilever office building, Rotterdam (1930). Architect: H.F. Mertens

The Tectonics of Brick Architecture

considerations. Currently expansion joints are the biggest challenge to brick

THE TECTONICS OF LOAD-BEARING AND THE

24 Semper, Style, p. 154.

It is interesting to note a contradiction in the relationship between the tectonics

26 Ibid., p. 15, translation by the author.

The Tectonics of Brick Architecture

of Semperian thinking, as I hope the argument of this essay makes clear.

Brick. An Exacting Material

Jan Peter Wingender

Brick. An Exacting Material

It uncovers the distinctive patterns and dilemmas underlying the apparent

Bombed city centre, Rotterdam, 1941

Bombed city centre, Rotterdam, 1941

THE CLADDING OF THE CONSTRUCTION

In Massive- und Filigranbau (Solid and Filigree construction), the

Brickwork is no longer about structure, but unavoidably evokes the image of

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CLADDING

A CLASSIFICATION OF THE PROJECTS

BETWEEN SUPPORT AND CLADDING

to in practice. Viewed with suspicion by many architects, this development

faades emphasise the textile qualities of brick as a cladding material. The

THE ELEGANCE OF A BRICK DRESS

In the projects presented, architects connect the design of brickwork faades

Jan Peter Wingender

Brick. An Exacting Material

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen