Brickwork is back in trend. Even the most famous architects are starting to rediscover this method of construction. The most well-known examples include the Kolumba Museum by Peter Zumthor or the renovation of the Neues Museum (New Museum) in Berlin by David Chipperfield. But how do the architects manage to create such unmistakable buildings from standardised stone with an aura that only a massive wall can emit? With today’s standards and rules is it even possible to construct brickwork on a large scale without extra thermal insulation?

On the same day as DETAIL 10 is published, on 1 October, the EnEV 2009 comes into force in Germany, which requires a 30% reduction in the primary energy demand in comparison to the EnEV 2007. The k value of an external wall must now reach a value of K=0.24 W/m2K. Can this be achieved with brickwork? Which wall thicknesses are necessary and what sort of insulating brick products are available? And what method of wall construction is better: the dual-layer, heavy brick wall with thick insulation and EIFS or a monolithic wall with new insulating brick, which can now reach a thermal conductivity of 0.06 W/mK?

DETAIL 10 covers not only the artistic potential of exposed brickwork, but also the technical qualities of innovative brick, which are often hidden behind plaster or thermal insulation systems; when discussing brickwork it is hard to avoid plaster, paint and these thermal insulation systems. To display the full range of options, we filmed a school with a rear-ventilated ceramic façade for the project documentary. The green/yellow-varnished terracotta tiles are not fitted with normal vertical grooves, but rather with offset grooves like brickwork.

Content in Issue 10/2009

Additional Online-Content of Issue 10/2009

Sculptural and Rich in Metaphor: Herning Museum of Contemporary Art
Whalebone with Sequins: 10 Hills Place in Central London
High Line in New York 
Westminster Academy in London 

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