(Archive) BRICK WORKS

How should bricks be made in the XXI century, where and for whom?

The form of a brick speaks about the human body; the size references a human hand. Its materiality reflects changes in geology as well as geopolitics. A single brick does not hold many functions, but it does communicate architectural potential. There is beauty and possibility in this ubiquitous object.
Yet it is entangled in so many of our current issues.

Brick as a composition of the materials extracted from the ground, for centuries was reflecting the potential of local geologies. But since more than
three-quarters of the world’s bricks are produced in South-East Asia, that is a fantasy from the past.

What is under the ground of the regions we live in, especially the urban areas, is far from a romanticized idea of the untouched. Human-made materials outweigh the Earth’s entire biomass, and the subterranean landscapes reflect this, as well.

Local vs Localism

Going back to ‘local’ is proposed as one of the solutions to the global climate crisis. But being local is not free from global responsibilities. Local extraction focused solely on local raw, and natural materials is a problematic practice. As is the division between the natural and the artificial, human and nature. To bridge this gap, I want to better understand the materials around us and find a way to share this understanding.

Naive material translation and immediate prototyping

My process of brick production starts with finding the extraction site, usually, a fragment of a road or pavement dug up for repairs. At the end of the construction worker’s workday, it becomes my research site. It is a rare chance to analyze the structure and systems of modern geology that are hidden from us. It looks chaotic, random, mutant! It is hard to name and distinguish what is
the function of all these elements. What is nutritious to the ecosystem and what is fundamental to the social needs?

My bricks are naive material translations, immediate prototypes made out of materials extracted from local holes dug out in Nexø, on the island of Bornholm, Denmark, but the analysis can be conducted anywhere in the world where a hole was dug.