So brick, tell me what you want, what you really, really want

This project researches the methods by which architecture is typically practiced. It investigates traditional methods of drawing through parallel projection and seeks to uncover novel, alternative ways of arriving at architecture.   

This project renews a wholely masonry architecture and clay is of particular interest in this project due to it’s ability to be both plastic and hard – as soft clay or rigid ceramic. Architecture is typically imagined and practiced through parallel projection. These projection methods necessitate the use of straight lines and three-dimensionality is typically found through the meeting of lines in plan and section. These methods are useful for a whole host of reasons but are particularly relevant when the material of architecture likes to work in linear forms.  

The brick however does not like straight lines. In brick’s hard state, it preferences a catenary curve and in brick’s soft state it tends to bend, squish and collapse in spontaneous ways. The following project is a study in the preferences of the brick and seeks to find an architecture that is not only sympathetic to, but celebrates all the characteristics of plastic clay and hard brick.

Extruded Corinthian column with a window cut into it

A clay extruder

Ground Floor Plan

Long Section

1:10 model demonstrating the relationship between a vault and body of water