Patterned brick work is HOT right now, and we couldn’t be more excited about it! In the past year, we’ve seen a noticeable uptick in architects requesting advice for detailing screen walls, unique brick bonds, and protruding header designs like the one pictured here.
Back in 2016, we supplied material for this 3-unit residential condo building on the border of Chicago’s Humboldt Park and Ukrainian Village neighborhoods — and it’s an excellent example of how cool creations don’t have to come at an unreasonable cost.
Most brick made today has circular “core holes” running through the middle of each brick. The exact number, size, shape, and arrangement of these holes varies by manufacturer, but they all serve a similar purpose: to keep material costs low, to help the brick weigh less, to more securely adhere adjoining bricks in a wall, and to help the clay dry and cook consistently.
Normally, you can’t even tell the core holes are there. But, when you start turning & projecting masonry, or leaving open spaces between bricks (like in a screen wall)… you have to be mindful of where those holes are. It looks kind of silly if you can see them poking out.
So: if you plan to use brick in a way where the holes can be seen from above or below, make sure you specify solid bricks in these areas. There’s an additional cost for solid units, but any manufacturer can make them for you (it’s a common request).
Another way to avoid core holes poking out? Know your material! For this project, the designers smartly projected only about ¾” of the brick out of the wall. The core holes remain totally hidden inside the wall, the mason didn’t have to order any special shapes, and this protruding Flemish Bond pattern creates gorgeous, ever-changing shadows on the façade of this building all day long.
We love this use of a cream-colored structural brick border too, don’t you?
LOCATION: Humboldt Park
ARCHITECT: dSpace Studio
GC: Bigane Construction
MASON: Total Masonry
PRODUCT SUPPLIED: Structural Brick
