Architecture
9 Bricktastic Ideas That Break the Rules
Bricks are as useful as they are beautiful inside and out, as these out-of-the-box design ideas reveal
If you’re looking for a building material that is robust, versatile and ages with beauty, it’s hard to go past the humble brick. They are also long-lived, re-usable, sustainable and provide thermal mass to your home. This helps keep your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter, especially when paired with passive design techniques. Here are a few designs showcasing brick and how it can give a modern edge to your home.
The use of white glazed bricks also helps give a contemporary aesthetic to the studio.
2. Something to say
OOF! Architecture wants to give us a big hello with a fun and novel design using bricks. It’s fair to say this is a design for the more adventurous among us, though it’s bound to give you a smile every time you walk past!
OOF! Architecture wants to give us a big hello with a fun and novel design using bricks. It’s fair to say this is a design for the more adventurous among us, though it’s bound to give you a smile every time you walk past!
The ‘Hello’ addition is a departure from the original house, but still manages to fit in with the help of the building material common to both – bricks.
3. Honouring days gone by
Keep a trace of history within your very own wall. Tsuruta Architects have kept the original brick walls within this neat extension as a way to remember the past. As well as using a different palette of bricks, old and new are further juxtaposed with a mix of contemporary and classical finishes and fixtures within.
Keep a trace of history within your very own wall. Tsuruta Architects have kept the original brick walls within this neat extension as a way to remember the past. As well as using a different palette of bricks, old and new are further juxtaposed with a mix of contemporary and classical finishes and fixtures within.
The architects’ use of brick continues inside, creating an elegant mix of materials while breaking up the large expanses of timber.
4. Feeling bold?
Why not add a splash of colour to your home using bricks? That’s what Wowowa has done at the Forever House. The outer layer of the house features ‘seconds’ bricks typically rejected by architects, and the inner skin makes use of ‘thirds’ ready for landfill. This house illustrates how rejected materials can be made beautiful through design.
Why not add a splash of colour to your home using bricks? That’s what Wowowa has done at the Forever House. The outer layer of the house features ‘seconds’ bricks typically rejected by architects, and the inner skin makes use of ‘thirds’ ready for landfill. This house illustrates how rejected materials can be made beautiful through design.
The new brick addition complements the original house design.
5. Urban edge
Love it rustic or a bit streetwise? Why not keep it raw and contrast it with a contemporary edge as Index Architecture has done at the Knuckle House in Melbourne?
Love it rustic or a bit streetwise? Why not keep it raw and contrast it with a contemporary edge as Index Architecture has done at the Knuckle House in Melbourne?
6. Outside the square
Break the grid and add some curves and circles to that wall. That’s what Nest Architects has done at its College Place project in Melbourne.
Break the grid and add some curves and circles to that wall. That’s what Nest Architects has done at its College Place project in Melbourne.
The light shining through the portal windows into the bedroom acts as a feature within the wall.
Take a tour around the rest of this house
Take a tour around the rest of this house
7. Inside and out
Architecture Architecture‘s Turnaround House shows just how well bricks can break up clean and modern white walls and begin to blur the inside-outside threshold.
Architecture Architecture‘s Turnaround House shows just how well bricks can break up clean and modern white walls and begin to blur the inside-outside threshold.
Bricks serve to ground this house and by bringing elements of brick within the interior, the home feels far more spacious. These brick window seats beneath bi-fold windows enhance the indoor-outdoor flow.
8. Surface shake-up
Why not mix it up and mottle your wall with texture and colour? These multi-coloured bricks have a zig-zagged edge, creating a rippled effect across the facade.
Why not mix it up and mottle your wall with texture and colour? These multi-coloured bricks have a zig-zagged edge, creating a rippled effect across the facade.
The expanse of bricks makes quite an impact from the street.
9. Colour surprise
Adding a dash of unexpected colour to that brick wall will give it a point of difference and a contemporary twist – just right for this studio, which is just as colourful within.
TELL US
Have you made bricks a feature at your house? Share your photos and ideas in the Comments below.
MORE
Exposed: Bricks in All Their Glory … Inside the Home
To Paint or Not to Paint: Exposed Brick Interiors
8 Traditional Red Brick Villas That Burst Out of the Box
Adding a dash of unexpected colour to that brick wall will give it a point of difference and a contemporary twist – just right for this studio, which is just as colourful within.
TELL US
Have you made bricks a feature at your house? Share your photos and ideas in the Comments below.
MORE
Exposed: Bricks in All Their Glory … Inside the Home
To Paint or Not to Paint: Exposed Brick Interiors
8 Traditional Red Brick Villas That Burst Out of the Box
Add some distinction and mix it up as MAKE Architecture has done with its Little Brick Studio project. A pattern of rotated bricks within the course delivers a more three-dimensional effect, and creates delightful shadow patterns across the walls.