Brick, Reconfigured investigates how reclaimed fired bricks can be transformed into new architectural systems that extend both their material life and environmental performance. The research explores how damaged, frost-affected and incompatible masonry materials can be rehabilitated through metamorphic transformation, preserving their material identity while generating new architectural possibilities.
By reorganising material relationships before firing, the project investigates how brick types with different firing histories, melting temperatures and thermal expansion coefficients can become stable ceramic composites. Carefully composed material arrangements balance internal thermal stresses during firing, allowing previously incompatible bricks to fuse into durable monolithic elements.
2023
Brick ↔ Brick
Difference ↔ Compatibility
Material ↔ Fire
Fragment ↔ Whole
Structure ↔ Light
Waste ↔ Architecture
Beyond material transformation, the research explores new structural organisations that move brick beyond conventional masonry. Open "brick lace" systems introduce permeability, allowing light, air and vegetation to become part of the architectural assembly while creating opportunities for passive cooling, solar shading and climate-responsive façade systems.
Brick, Reconfigured demonstrates how existing mineral-based materials can acquire new environmental functions by building on the inherent performance of fired ceramics and the manufacturing knowledge already embedded within the material.