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Best practices for matching replacement brick to historic fired-clay brick
Published in Jan Kubica, Arkadiusz Kwiecień, Łukasz Bednarz, Brick and Block Masonry - From Historical to Sustainable Masonry, 2020
Brick is one of man’s oldest building materials, and specifically, fired-clay brick can trace its history back to the fourth millennium B.C. (Campbell, 2003). The first step in creating this product is to obtain the raw material, clay, which is later used to form the brick. The clay is then tempered, formed into a shape, and fired in a kiln at high temperatures to vitrify the clay, inciting a chemical reaction that creates a changed, durable material. Until it is fired, water can be added to clay to return it to a malleable state, but once it is fired, that is no longer possible.
Constellations of weathering: following the meteorological mobilities of Bangla bricks
Published in Mobilities, 2020
Brick-fields churn relentlessly in the drier months, transforming landscapes and atmospheres. During this period bricks are made by hand, sun-dried, fired and then cooled. Clay is a heavy material that requires a lot of energy to work. Each brick is created through gruelling, repetitive labour, formed by the respirations, pulses and circulations of human bodies. Sand is added to temper the clay before being moulded to increases its plasticity and workability. Tempered clay is then processed, or pugged, to ensure its homogeneity, which prevents bricks from cracking when drying. Once the clay is prepared, moulding can begin. Balls of pugged, tempered clay are thrown forcibly into wooden moulds before being skilfully turned out onto sanded, levelled ground. Moulding is repeated through rhythmic replications producing endless rows of unfired, green bricks which dry in the sun until firm enough to be fired, the drying dependent on circulations of the atmosphere. In the labour-intensive process of brickmaking it is not just the clay that is transformed, people change too, ‘their bodies moulded to the daily tasks, their senses attuned to the subtle “voices” of the machines and matter they are working with’ (Bennett 2016, 72). Brickmaking is a co-creation of the affordances of matter and human energies, and in the process people are weathered too.