Brick Bulletin Summer 2000
Transcription
Brick Bulletin Summer 2000
BRICK Project: Harley Davidson showroom, London 12 14 Project: Geffrye Museum, extension, London 22 Project: Housing, Glasgow Technical notes: Wash and brush up, Jubilee Line Extension 29 UK £5.00 COVER House, Ballihoo, Caversham Summer 2000 BRICK Summer 2000 UPDATE 3-4 Acting editor Sue Duncan Technical editor Michael Hammett Co-ordinating editor Ruth Slavid Production editors Bill Broun Eleanor Young Outram’s Dutch treat Brick Awards 2000 Brickwork by the book Inspirational design from across Europe Second time around The outcome of the Skills Olympics final Environmental issues Wave power at Portsmouth VIEWPOINT 5-7 Art editor Terry Howe Ecohouse designer Dr Susan Roaf on designing for sustainability The TIA 2000 conference PROJECT PROFILES 8-9 10-11 12-13 14-17 18-19 ISSN: 0307-9325 20-21 Published by 22-23 151 Rosebery Avenue London EC1R 4GB Printer 24-25 Cradley Print 26-28 Academic building A new research lab asserts itself on the Bristol skyline Housing A village ambience for Queen's University student residences Retail building A polished performance at Harley-Davidson showrooms Public building The Geffrye Museum Extension provides a new angle on brickwork Private house A new house takes to the water Structural brickwork Gillingham Northern Link Road walling uses a range of brickwork structures Housing Award-winning housing in Glasgow uses brick to the full Housing Bold and stylish stripes distinguish Docklands housing Public Building The Contact Theatre brings new drama to Manchester in more ways than one TECHNICAL NOTES 29-30 31 2 The Brick Development Association Limited Woodside House Winkfield Windsor Berks SL4 2DX Tel 01344 885651 Fax 01344 890129 E-mail [email protected] Website www.brick.org.uk Restoration Restoring brickwork structures at London Bridge Design guidance Brickwork openings of non-brick widths BDA MEMBERS 32 A full listing of members B rick Bulletin makes its first twenty-first century appearance with a very strong selection of fine buildings and structures. My personal reaction is to be impressed, once more, by the infinite possibilities of brick and how this medium can keep on re-inventing itself, in the hands of architects and craftsmen, to produce the most amazing results. It is such a familiar material that we run the risk of taking it for granted, perhaps overlooking its enduring qualities. As a relative newcomer to the industry, I have been struck by the amazing richness and variety of brick and, perhaps with the zeal of the newly converted, urge everyone to take a fresh look at the material. Look anew at those enduring qualities of beauty, diversity, flexibility, durability and sustainability. All of these virtues are illustrated in this issue. There is a particularly strong theme of sustainability, with Dr Susan Roaf’s Viewpoint article and our sponsorship of the TIA 2000 conference on Sustainable Buildings. At Manchester’s Contact Theatre, Alan Short’s brick chimneys have a key role in the natural ventilation strategy – as well as creating dramatic new silhouettes. And at London Bridge station it is very satisfying to see the beauty of 170 year-old brickwork vaults, cleaned and restored, confidently holding their own against the prevailing glass and steel context of the Jubilee Line Extension. Finally, in London’s East End, Branson Coates – a practice not usually associated with brick buildings – has given solid traditional brickwork and lime mortars a twist. Its horseshoe-shaped extension to the Geffrye Museum has sloping brickwork which really gives one pause. It makes you look at the fabric once, twice, and then again – more closely this time. Perhaps that’s what we should all be doing – all of the time. Con Lenan, chief executive, BDA Outram’s Dutch treat The flamboyant polychromatic brickwork in a striking development at The Hague’s Old Town Hall announces itself as the work of John Outram Associates. The completion of a new town hall 1km away presented the chance for a unique addition to the already thriving shopping area. The project, for developer MAB Groep, comprised the conversion of the part Medieval Oude Stadhuis into offices, plus a new retail development on the adjoining site. This Bricks across Europe Clay Bricks and Tiles in Europe, published by the Fédération Européenne des Fabriquants de Tuiles et de Briques (TBE), shows construction ceramics at their superb best in a series of fine projects, all of which are beautifully photographed. Projects from across the 21 countrystrong membership of the organisation are shown – for purposes of both education and inspiration. Projects as diverse as de Montfort University in Leicester and the nine storey Hotel Lille rub shoulders with Czech apartment buildings and the new railway station in Seville, demonstrating the versatility of the medium in diverse architectural styles. Copies are available at £7.00, only from the BDA. was freed by the demolition of the unloved 1970s Council Chamber, the rough concrete facades and layout of which had always been at odds with the old quarter. A circular building – the Rotunda – is at the apex of the triangular site, acting as the main entrance and stair hall for the first-floor department store. The other flanks of the scheme contain shopfronts and are cut back to reveal the fine facades of the Oude Stadhuis. In the Oude Stadhuis itself, while the first floor now houses offices for rent, the magnificent ground-floor interiors are retained for public use as a registry office. It is the rotunda entrance that marks out the development as unmistakably Outram. It has a glazed clay tile roof sitting on columns clad with a trademark psychedelic palette; the shiny precision of glazed bricks – red, white, yellow, dark and light blue – in combination with blue engineering bricks, each of them special shaped radius bricks to achieve the tight arc required. The project was fully let before completion. Brickwork by the book In search of excellence The BDA Guide to Successful Brickwork (Second Edition) is now available. It is an indispensable guide for all involved in teaching, specifying or practising good brickwork and provides comprehensive coverage of the subject, updating and expanding the award-winning first edition published in 1994. New photographs and technical drawings have been added and there are two additional sections, covering chimney and fireplace construction. The BDA’s sponsorhip for this edition reaffirms its commitment to supporting the training of skilled bricklayers, and promoting good practice in brickwork masonry. Published by Arnold, the book is available from booksellers and from the BDA (ISBN 340 75899 6, price £16.99. Plus postage and packaging at £3.50). A black-tie gala dinner on Thursday 28 November at London’s Café Royal is the venue for presentation of the Brick Awards 2000. Organised in association with the Builder Group and judged by a distinguished panel of assessors, the awards will identify, honour and celebrate the best in brickwork design and craftsmanship. Nomination forms are being distributed through the building press, and are also available from the staff of various brickcompanies. Alternatively call the BDA (tel 01344 885651) for an entry form, or download one directly from the BDA website at www.brick.org.uk. The final deadline for entries is Friday 1 September 2000. 3 Skill Olympics final Second time around A frequent subject of inquiry to the BDA Technical Information Service is the use of reclaimed bricks. These have an undoubted appeal, particularly where a mature and weathered appearance is sought, though specifiers may not be aware that new bricks can often achieve the desired appearance at lower cost, Envest for the environment ENVEST is a new software package from BRE enabling designers to estimate the lifecycle environmental impact of a building Wave power 4 The Wymering Wall in Portsmouth is a massive artwork in brick, stone and flint and is part of the Wymering Public Art Project, whose recent opening marked the fruition of four years of while having the advantages of known provenance, established technical performance and assured availability. Architect Alison Norcross of the BDA Technical Information Service has prepared some guidance on the subject and her document explores the aesthetic, technical and economic issues. It can be downloaded directly from the BDA website at www.brick.org.uk. Chris Armitage has returned from the Olympics with a Diploma of Excellence. His event was bricklaying and the games in question were the International Youth Skills Olympics Montreal, held in Montreal last November. The challenge facing an international field of 17 competitors was an exceptionally tough piece involving intricate patterns of different colours and shapes and entailing many individual cuts. Armitage came just outside the medal category but was later presented by Baroness Blackstone with a UK Skills Woodbine Parish Award. This rewards the highest marks above diploma level by a non medal winner. The Irish representative took the gold. from the early design stage. Alternative schemes and materials can be compared on the basis of ‘ecopoints’ (100 ecopoints being equivalent to the environmental impact of one UK citizen a year). For more information e-mail [email protected] Readers are reminded of BDA’s publication Brick for Life. This looks at brick’s role in and impact on the environment and is available free of charge from BDA. artistic effort and the active involvement of the local community. The Lottery funded project had its origins in a proposed new multi-purpose community sports centre. Various local artists were asked to respond to its public arts potential and the result reflects both their individual approaches and the input of local residents. A physical boundary between the new centre and the main road was needed. Artist Peter Codling responded with a wall that unfolds for 129m of bending, coiling brickwork, creating dynamic shapes from every angle. The radii are tight – the 129m of wall is compressed along a 90m boundary – and called for expertise in manufacture and bricklaying. So did the doublearchway gate with rope spiral columns which mark the pedestrian entrance. The brickwork, by local builders Trevor Duke and Bradley Drackett, has been singled out for praise. This is a narrative wall: the bricks are inscribed with community names, dates and quotes inscribed by residents before firing. The flints were from the site, and a local collector donated the fossils which are embedded in mortar. The project was initiated by Portsmouth City Council’s City Arts and in partnership with the Wymering Community Association. Dr Susan Roaf The challenge of creating sustainable housing 1 The Oxford Ecohouse: 48 photovoltaic panels and four solar heating panels are installed on the south-facing roof. The house produces only 140kg CO 2 a year compared with a comparable house built to 1995 Building Regulations, which would produce circa 6520kg a year 2 Thermographic image of the Ecohouse in autumn. Even with 200mm of insulation in the roof it is letting out some heat 3 Thermographic image of neighbouring house. Note extreme thermal bridging in the structure at the corners and air leakage at eave level. These two images show the importance of careful detailing 4 Large photovoltaic installation in a commercial building, the Solar Building, Doxfor d International Business Park, Sunderland An extended version of this article is available on the BDA website at www.brick.org.uk 1 Dr Susan Roaf lectures at Oxford Brookes University, School of Architecture and lives in the Oxford Ecohouse which she designed D oes sustainability have implications for architectural form? asked New Zealander Peter Diprose in his doctoral thesis at Auckland University. He concluded that sustainability may have the potential to create novel forms, but no one ‘sustainable’ aesthetic is likely to emerge. Instead, a raft of responses will emerge with elements reflecting the broad range of issues the subject entails. These issues relate directly to fundamental environmental challenges facing us in the twenty-first century. They include: ● Carbon dioxide emissions, the greenhouse effect and climate change ● Ozone depletion ● Pollution ● Extinction of species and destruction of habitat ● Population increase and development ● Resource depletion. I believe we are capable of meeting these challenges and have the tools and knowledge to create sustainable buildings. Solutions lie, not with HVAC engineers or planners, but with architects. Because the answer to the question ‘is the building sustainable?’ is always ‘it all depends’, and that is ‘on 5 the architecture’ – how the designer deals with the issues noted above. Let us not underestimate the importance of buildings in the future of the world. They consume around half of all energy used in the developed countries. The USA uses more than 40 per cent of all its generated electricity on air-conditioning buildings. In Britain, despite the fact that the number of households has increased by 22 per cent since 1970 and domestic energy consumption has risen by 28 per cent, annual CO2 emissions from British houses have fallen by 21 per cent in the same period. This has happened for a number of reasons including increased levels of energy efficiency and the ‘Dash for Gas’ that has characterised British patterns of energy use since the early 1970s, when gas became the preferred fuel for the rapidly expanding central heating industry. For equivalent energy gas gives a third to a quarter less CO2 than electricity, because generating our electricity is only between 25 per cent and 36 per cent efficient. Gas resources are depleting, but by the time our reserves have dwindled the solar revolution should enable us to heat our homes and water by electricity generated from the sun. We cannot rely on oil, which is commonly thought to have a total of around 50 easilyaccessible reserves left globally. As designer and builder of the Oxford Ecohouse I have learned firsthand the benefits of very low energy bills. Since April 1995 gas bills for our six-bedroom house have been about £13.50 a quarter, and electricity bills £10 a month (both exclude standing charges). The house was built without the aid of computer simulation, using lessons learned from master builders (modern and ancient) of the European solar-design community and the Middle East, where I lived for many years. Our house has proved to have one of the lowest energy consumptions in the UK, hence one of the lowest environmental impacts. It provides lessons that can be transferred to future house designs. The government has predicted the need for 1.1 million new houses in the South-east of England between 1996 and 2021. It will not matter if these are built in high-density city sites, in ‘compact cities’, or on greenfield sites if they are environmentally profligate. What matters is that each has a minimum environmental impact. Key points for sustainable housing 6 Tony Mould, energy and environmental consultant at Tweed Nuttal Warbuton, has some key points to be considered in creating sustainable housing. Site: save natural habitats where possible. Turn the building away from 2 3 biting cold winds. Shelter it with trees and planting. Orientation: align buildings with main living and bedrooms within 15º each side of south to save on heating. Avoid houses shading each other from sun. Building form: minimise the surface area of building to minimise heat loss. Shade the building interior from the high summer sun, especially from the west where the hottest air temperatures are combined with the low western sun. Building envelope: be mindful of exposure. Maintenance becomes an issue in Life Cycle Costing analyses so choose materials that do not need frequent maintenance and repair. Brick has an advantage, requiring only minimum maintenance. At every main entry point, provide a draught lobby, porch, or sunspace to form an air lock to control air movement into and out of the building. Insulation: choose insulation materials for their environmental benefits as well as their performance. The thicker the insulation under the floor, in walls and the roof, the warmer the building will be in winter and the cooler in summer. Design to minimise cold bridging. Detail design to reduce energy leaks: decide the thermal resistance appropriate to each building element. The lower the U-value of an element the better its resistance to heat transfer, keeping the interior warm in winter and cool in summer. All elements cannot have equal thermal resistance, but each should be the best of its kind. Masonry construction is not always airtight and detail design should minimise air leakage. Supervision of site work should ensure that details are built as designed and that shortcomings in construction do not prejudice performance. Ventilation: this is used to remove stale air and odours and to heat and cool buildings. Never use mechanical ventilation where opening windows or passive stack solutions can work, because it uses extra energy. Natural ventilation should be controlled – not just haphazard air leakage. Daylight: windows to the south will catch the light, that can be used deeper in the building via internal windows to light internal spaces, reducing the need for artificial lighting. Building mass: lightweight construction, such as a timber frame, warms up and cools down quickly. Buildings of heavy construction, for example masonry, have more thermal mass. The masonry acts like the bricks in an electric storage heater, absorbing heat when it is abundant and radiating it again as the adjacent air temperature drops. A passive solar building should have well-placed thermal mass to act in this beneficial way, assisting fuel economy in winter and comfort conditions in summer, and reducing the magnitude of daily temperature fluctuations. Embodied energy and materials: embodied energy is that used in the manufacture and transport of material to site. Specifying the most natural products available with a minimum of processing, and sourcing them as close to the site as possible to minimise transport impacts would seem to be desirable, but consideration should also be given to how long they will last and what they will require in terms of maintenance and renewal. Recent studies consider not only embodied energy of materials, but also the energy used in their maintenance and replacement over a 60 year service life – which is what life-cycle costing is based on. Durability and product life are key factors in ensuring the sustainability of building. Brick performs well in this context, we know it can last centuries and still look beautiful. Heating systems and controls: choose the lowest energy, or CO2 emission, heating system available. The greatest influence on the comfort of the occupants of the building is the weather and the use and control of the heating system. The required heat output is reduced by the thermal insulation of the building fabric and by the heat generated by solar gain and the occupants and their equipment. With a well-insulated building and thermal mass placed correctly it is possible to keep heating energy consumption to a minimum. Condensation: dampness in buildings is frequently caused by condensation of moisture from air of high humidity on cold surfaces. Follow three simple rules to avoid condensation: ● Eliminate cold bridges from construction as they introduce cold surfaces internally on which moisture condenses ● Provide ventilated air locks such as front porches and rear sunspaces where wet clothes and damp washing can be hung to dry. Use passive stack ventilation for the kitchens and bathrooms which are TIA conference on sustainable buildings for the twenty-first century Buildings of the future will have to be robust, low-energy and sustainable. It is an issue near the top of many agendas, the brick industry’s included. So the BDA is pleased to align itself with the aims of an international teaching conference at Somerville College, Oxford (9-12 July) and to sponsor the event. TIA (Teachers in Architecture) has organised a programme of importance to all professions involved in building design. It will cover design issues and tools, teaching methodologies, and case studies from high-tech and low-tech to notech. A star-studded speaker programme includes Ken Yeang from Kuala Lumpur, Baruch Givoni from Los Angeles and Steven Szokolay from Brisbane. For details contact the conference coordinator at the School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University. tel 01865 483200 fax 01865 483298 e-mail [email protected] 4 areas where high humidity is created. ● Use water-based paints on all surfaces to enable moisture to be absorbed into the building structure, so preventing its build up in the internal air of the house. Water conservation: provide water butts to collect rainwater and consider greywater systems. Solar water heating: in most years a solar water heating system can provide, free, between 50 and 75 per cent of the annual hot water requirement of a house. Photovoltaics or solar electric systems (PV): new houses can easily accommodate 500W of PV panels on south-facing roofs. This should cost between £2000 and £2500 for multiple systems, which can generate much of the basic electricity requirement of the house for 20-30 years. Methods of measurement Sustainable design requires that design and construction waste should be minimised, local communities be included in developments and building performance targets set and met. These targets can include SAP ratings for energy consumption. A SAP rating of 90 plus is not too ambitious a target to achieve with sensible design. Another target is the ‘Ecological Footprint’ of a building. This is a more holistic tool and measures a household against the amount of land required to support its lifestyle. It assesses transport, energy, water, waste, house and garden and purchasing. Another new tool is ‘Envest’, a very detailed and userfriendly programme designed for evaluating the environmental impacts of new housing; like BREEAM for Housing it is produced by the BRE. This is where the architecture becomes of vital importance. Everything noted above and more has to be considered for twenty-first century buildings. Aesthetically houses can look however the client and the architect decide, but they will have to perform sustainably. We are in the new age of performance-driven architecture and, increasingly, this is what clients will be demanding. What will the new architecture look like? It doesn’t matter. How will it perform? Very well indeed. 7 ACADEMIC BUILDING Chemistry class Deborah Singmaster reports on an exuberant new research facility at the University of Bristol Client University of Bristol Project manager and architect Percy Thomas Partnership Structural, civil, M&E engineer Ove Arup & Partners Contractor Wates Construction A new chemistry building has given the University of Bristol top-grade facilities for the industry’s next generation of research chemists. Despite a brief driven by technological as well as health and safety considerations, the building is a striking new landmark on the Bristol skyline Photography STP Photography T 8 he £11.5 million Synthetic Chemistry Research Laboratories building at the University of Bristol occupies a conspicuous hillside site overlooking the city. Designed by Percy Thomas Partnership with engineer Ove Arup and Partners, it is the product of an exacting and complex brief, executed with a rapidity and precision that invites comparison with the building’s scientific function. The laboratories, which were opened by Sir Richard Sykes, the chairman of Glaxo-Wellcome, are modelled on those developed by the pharmaceutical company at Stevenage; they are key to ensuring that Bristol continues to attract the best chemistry staff and students, and to strengthening the university’s relationship with industry. Naturally, organisation and fit-out of the internal spaces was the client’s first priority and the architect was given a relatively free hand with the exterior design. Matching and mixing Project architect Neil Embleton ‘wanted the building to be modern but at the same time to be in touch with its surroundings’. The site curves westwards from the existing 1960s School of Chemistry and the new building is, in effect, an extension. Its immediate neighbour is the Queen’s (Engineering Faculty) Building in brick and Bath stone, set back from a Brandon stone rubble retaining wall. Liver-red Brandon stone is one of Bristol’s surprises. It is seen everywhere, particularly in Victorian structures but is no longer quarried; a carefully sourced stone mix produced a the lightweight GRP cornice is an identical colour match. A decorative brick band, in a soldier course pattern, separates the two bottom string courses and provides a mounting for light fittings which uplight the brickwork at night. The top floor has been stepped back on this elevation, to lessen its vertical impact and provide space for a roof terrace with splendid views. The long south elevation is articulated by four projecting towers, each one housing the office of the lecturer serving the adjacent laboratory. Corresponding towers on the north elevation serve as equipment recesses off the service corridor. A collegiate interior convincing substitute – used on the base of the new building to great effect. The architect wanted a slightly brighter brick than that used on the Queen’s Building. Unless bricks are blended consistently by mixing from packs on site as bricklaying proceeds, unsightly banding can occur. To avoid this, a computer-mixed multi-brick was chosen. It was possible to specify the exact shading and ensure consistency between packs. The chosen yellow/brown multi is used as a halfbrick skin tied back to a concrete frame and blockwork inner leaf. The only special-shaped bricks required on the project were pistols cut from standards to fit over stainless steel supports, and cut and stuck doglegs for oblique corners. Pre-mixed, pigmented Designation (iii) mortar was used and the stretcher bonded brickwork has bucket-handle joints for neatness and weather resistance. Designing from the inside out The awkward site and complex brief dictated the internal lay-out: a clean corridor to the south and a service corridor to the north, with laboratories spanning between. Ancillary spaces such as offices and computer rooms are at the west end of the plan, and a terminal tower, or ‘prow’, containing meeting rooms in the north west corner. The 2.6m radius on the prow is the minimum recommended for standard bricks in stretcher bond. On the internal wall of the clean corridor an impressive 2.4m radius has been achieved. The rough texture of the brick face helps disguise any facetting. Support for the radiused brick cladding is provided by individual brackets fixed to the framed structure at floor levels. The west-facing elevation’s composition of window shapes and sizes is informal and includes portholes set within self-supporting bullseyes built from standard header bricks. Visual unity is established by careful detailing of precast string courses: beneath each course, a single-brick band of blue engineering bricks provides a shadow gap (and also disguises the presence of weep holes). The precast string courses and window dressings have a Bath stone finish, and The brickwork theme continues inside the building in the exposed walls of the clean corridors, and with carpets, timber doors and purpose-built furniture, achieves an appropriately collegiate atmosphere in the staff offices, in contrast with the necessarily more clinical finishes in the laboratories. Curtain-wall glazing spans between the towers, giving panoramic views which can be enjoyed from the main work spaces and particularly from the low blue brick window seats. Piers of matching blue bullnose engineering bricks are also used at the entrance to the fourth-floor bridge link into the old building. The roofline of the new laboratories is probably the most dramatic in Bristol, with its curved plant room roofs – like ski pistes – topped by four massive chimneys clad in spiralling lead sheeting: yet planning permission was obtained without delay or qualification. Embleton believes that the choice of a sympathetic brick cladding helped to generate this favourable reaction to an eclectic design which sprang from a challenging site and a technologydriven brief. 9 HOUSING Beveridge in Belfast Student welfare is at the core of new student housing. Joan Shannon re p o rt s Client The Queen's University of Belfast Architect Roger McMichael Architects Main Contractor Felix O'Hare & Co S t ru c t u r a l Engineers Kirk McClure Morton Landscape Architect John Williams Photography Anderson McMeekin Brickwork buildings link with attractive brick landscaping at new student residences in Belfast, creating a village-like environment with the emphasis on community 10 T he Queen’s Elms halls of residence for the Queen's University of Belfast are situated in parkland in a quiet residential area off the Malone Road, close to the main university campus. The most recent development is Beveridge Hall, an attractive village-like complex, built in brick. The hall was named after the late Sir Gordon Beveridge, former vice chancellor of the university. At the naming ceremony the current vice chancellor George Bain said: ‘It is most fitting that this building has been named Beveridge Hall. One of Sir Gordon's priorities was the welfare of students and he did everything in his power to ensure their well-being.’ Community and privacy For many students, living in hall represents their first experience of living away from home and student housing can play a major role in easing the transition from family living to full independence. The Beveridge Hall design centres on promoting both community development and privacy: from the community of external spaces, through shared internal spaces, to the privacy of individual bedsitting rooms. Accommodation for the 354 students is in 11 three-storey blocks of study bedrooms on a multi-level site. Each room has personal washing facilities and access to a shared kitchen/dining room, showers and WCs. The blocks are built as structural, for the buff brick and black for the darkblue facing brickwork) are re-echoed in the external works where buff, blue and red clay pavers create attractive areas. Linear motifs are also provided in the form of black metalwork features – grilles across the lower part of the ground-floor windows, cycle racks, bollards, handrails and a decorative arch. Paths and avenues cellular, load-bearing brick and blockwork masonry on strip or trenchfill foundations as expedient. Roofs of grey-coloured concrete tiles accompany gable walls topped with reconstituted stone copings. Sense of warmth Extruded wire-cut clay bricks were specified; a golden buff colour to engender a sense of warmth for the external spaces, in combination with drag-faced, dark blue facings for the base of walls and for accent features elsewhere. The bricks are laid in stretcher bond with the blue brick courses projecting 10mm proud of the general plane of buff facing brickwork. Within the field of buff bricks above the blue brick base of each building, two courses of blues form a band to highlight the ground-floor windows, in association with the blue sill bricks. Seven single courses of blue bricks spaced apart form accent features to the windows and corners of the first floor. And below the second-floor windows, three courses of blues form a band taken right around the building. Dwarf walls and steps in the complex reflect the colour combination used in the building. The texture and colour of the brickwork go hand in hand with decorative lines in a carefully considered approach that integrates the new buildings with the landscape. For example, the mortar colours (dark red The Queen’s Elms site is elegant parkland, supporting many varieties of mature shrubs and trees. Existing trees were retained and supplemented with new ones, shrubs and wall-climbing plants, including various species of ivy. When mature, they will soften the appearance of the new buildings, contributing to the creation of the relaxed ambience of old-style, ivy covered, academic halls. The main avenue between the principal buildings leads to a paved terrace with wooded views to the south beyond a stepped lawn. Paths pass through spaces between the blocks, providing connections within the development and other parts of Queen’s Elms. Car parking is provided at the entrance to the site and so the avenue between the blocks is closed to all except emergency vehicles. The car park is paved with tarmac and clay pavers. A tarmac ‘road’ and ‘pavements’ of buff pavers, laid in herringbone bond, are separated by blue drainage-channel blocks. Buff pavers are also used to emphasise the entrances to the buildings. Towards the far end of the main avenue, circular paved patterns evolve from the centre of a wide courtyard area. Smaller circular patterns accentuate the extremities of other paths within the site. In each case the centre of the circle is formed by dark-red pavers. Herringbone pattern is used in both red and buff pavers for the designs. The main bulk of the pavers are buff, while the blue pavers are used to form patterns of lines and as a way to creat borders to the other colours. Architect Roger McMichael sees brick ‘as a background to the paved and planted character of the spaces between the buildings, which contributes extensively to the sense of community in the village.’ The demands of the academic year made it imperative that the construction programme should not slip and, in fact, the two-phase, £4.75 million development was delivered to plan. The architect paid tribute to the quality of workmanship in Northern Ireland saying ‘I applaud the very good bricklaying and paving squads here and the contractors that supervised them. They took a pride in their work.’ 11 RETAIL BUILDING Biker walls George Demetri on Zen and the art of low maintenance at Harley-Davidson Client FH Warr & Sons Architect Cullum & Nightingale Contractor Bickerton Group Structural Engineer Gifford & Partners Photography Philip Bier Bricks and sleek, glossy new motorcycles may seem as different as chalk and cheese. But a recently opened showroom shows how complimentary handmade bricks can be when used to express tradition, function, durability and sophistication. A n eye-catching red brick drum has gone up just behind the King’s Road in Chelsea. It would have been two storeys taller, had planning permission been forthcoming for the construction of upper floors. As it is, F W Warr & Sons had to be content with a lower two-storey ovalshaped building as showroom and offices for its flagship Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership. It can’t be too disappointed however, given the spatial attributes and enlightened mix of materials specified by architect Cullum & Nightingale on a building which is a tremendous improvement on Warr’s former accommodation. Design 12 Opened in December last year, the new £3 million building comprises a showroom at ground-floor level with office accommodation above. It is attached to an existing workshop. The option for extending the building vertically is open, although at present the roof is used for motorcycle storage. The showroom is expressed on the elevation by full-height glazing, broken intermittently by brick-clad concrete piers, while the office accommodation above enjoys full-height, solid 215mm brick walling punctured by windows. The building’s dynamic elliptical shape is a result of the architect’s desire to maximise the corner site by exploiting the full perimeter and creating a building which is as visible as possible from the King’s Road. This has been achieved by creating a tall, double-height showroom with a 5.5m clear internal floor-to-ceiling height, and by the use of eye-catching, handmade, orange-red bricks both inside and out. Chosen for their glowing colour even in dull light they seem to suggest a hint of warm sunshine. Construction The construction is a bit of a hybrid, with a concrete frame up to first-floor level and from there up a steel frame to make for easy connections, should further floors eventually be added. From a finishes point of view, the aim was to match the legendary engineering associated with the Harley brand and to reflect what the architects considered to be the key characteristics of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle: a sophisticated, functional and honest expression of all parts, using the highest quality materials. Driven by a dislike of cavity wall construction, the architects plumped for solid 215mm brickwork throughout which they feel has given numerous benefits, such as the creation of more satisfying reveals and associated aesthetic and solar-shading properties. Furthermore, the introduction of solid brickwork in Flemish bond with its alternating stretchers and headers could more easily accommodate the variable outer radius of the oval building without recourse to special-shaped radial bricks. The faceted brick-clad concrete columns extend well back into the show room – there is a deep 1000mm reveal. To demonstrate that brickwork to the piers is purely cladding and not structural, stack bonding has been used, with bricks and brick slips tied back to the concrete with steel ties and mesh. Topped by reconstituted stone cappings, the piers extend well above the first floor level on the front elevation, although this is purely for visual effect, as the concrete frame terminates at the level of the first floor slab. Brick, wood and concrete are the main finishes in the showroom – deliberately functional and unadorned. Chosen for their low maintenance and attractive ageing characteristics, the effect can be described as sophisticated rather than brutal. The warmth and texture provided by the handmade bricks form a startling contrast to the extensive shiny, smooth chromework on the motorcycles. The services and vertical circulation core are expressed partly by superbly finished bullnosed concrete at either end and partly by a central panel of 215mm thick floor-toceiling brickwork in Flemish bond. The ultra-smooth finish to concrete columns was achieved by using plastic tubes as shuttering, while the fair-faced, in-situ cast ceiling also provides interest, thanks to its elaborate profile. Similar to a folded plate-type structure, it has provided an alternative solution to downstand beams which would have subdivided the soffit and destroyed the spatial continuity of the showroom. Viewed in section, the shallow triangles are actually beams which become deeper toward the service core wall. The zigzag alternations provide interesting junctions where they abut the wall of the service core. Further excitement will come when motorcycles are suspended from the ceiling so as to fully exploit the light and airy showroom space. The other main material of the showroom is wood. It appears on the floor as lacquered tongued and grooved walnut, and was chosen on aesthetic grounds and for its ability to withstand the heavy weights of the bikes. More auspicious are the highly polished, walnut-topped sales counters – the largest of which weighs over a tonne. These monumental, highly polished lumps of cantilevered wood are supported on a chrome-finned structure reminiscent of both motorcycle and automobile radiators. This is not just fortuitous; they double up as air distribution grilles for the variable volume displacement ventilation system and contribute to controlling solar heat gains through the tall glazed facade. The latter uses a special glass designed to reduce solar glare and external reflections into the mainly west-facing showroom. Refinement, quality and excitement are all manifest in this stylish new showroom, making it a superb setting for the glamorous icons of personal transport on display. 13 PUBLIC BUILDING Twisting tradition Branson Coates has had fun with brickwork at the Geffrye Museum. Sutherland Lyall slopes of to investigate Concept architect Branson Coates Executive architect Sheppard Robson Structural engineer Alan Baxter & Associates Contractor Kier London Photography Locations Photography 14 The Georgian Geffrye Museum in East London has been given a design twist with Branson Coates’ new extension. Its fabric will reward close observation T he Geffrye Museum has long been a relatively unambitious display of the way people have lived over the centuries. Now it is the client for a major extension from the drawing boards of Branson Coates. Despite a rocky design history it has worked out and behind the modest almshouse facades a few streets north of fashionable Hoxton a spiralling wall of brick uncoils from a hidden garden. It’s round the back of the former almshouses which make up the Geffrye Museum in London’s Hackney, an elongated two-storey brick horseshoe with a low pitched roof. It provides the museum with much needed additional exhibition space – and a modestly sensational pavilion in its rear garden. Sunk into the garden and separated from it by a continuous sunken area, the glass and metal cladding of the lower level is protected by a sloping skirt of sunscreens attached to the base of a stepped concrete edge beam curving around the perimeter of the first level slab. On the north side this skirt merges into the roof of a sloping ramp which rises to ground level and a glazed café area which also serves as the link with the Georgian main building. Inside, the first floor is a curving exhibition space with a bookshop at one end and a kitchen plus café at the other linking to the old building. At ground/basement level are education rooms, a workshop and a design centre accessed by a dramatic 15 curving staircase at the core of the building’s curve. There’s something odd about the curving exterior – and then you get it. The Flemish bond brickwork, of firstquality multi stocks made from a Sussex clay, is laid in spiralling courses. There is a bit of optical confusion because the wall is a big one but the defining clue is given by the stepped supporting edge beam. In fact the slope is one in 12 and derives from the slope of the ramp. Thick thermal flywheel 16 You can tell from the occasional opening that this external wall is a very thick one. In fact there is a 215mm inner leaf, a 250mm cavity with 180mm of insulation and then a 215mm outer leaf. The wall is a thick one because it was decided to use the structure as a thermal sink in order to iron out temperature differences. The inner leaf, which is mostly plastered, has reinforced-brick piers at six to eight metre centres. They are a brick and a half on side with a steel rod down the middle tied back to the supporting slab and filled with concrete. The function of these piers is to support roof trusses and provide overall restraint for the upper parts of the structure – and to restrain the inner and outer brickwork of the wall. Although the outer wall is actually a continuous 80m long piece of brickwork, it was treated by the engineers as a series of panels spanning between the positions of the internal piers. It is at these points that the outer wall is tied back to the piers by fishtail ties slotted into vertical steel channels. These are supported by substantial stainless steel flats acting as both struts and ties protruding through the insulation from their fixing points in the mortar beds of each pier. The inner leaf of the walls was built conventionally off the concrete slab – the sawtooth lintels actually extend under the cavity and the external leaf and have vertical drain holes. As Alan Baxter engineer Nick Ling explains: ‘It’s not really a cavity wall, more accurately it’s an internal skin of structural brickwork with piers and a brick cladding which gains some of its stability from the ties at the pier positions. We adopted the fishtail-andchannel approach because with standard horizontal mortar beds on the internal wall and sloping courses on the outer you could never be sure you could line up the ties. We considered a number of possibilities including standard ties but this was the simplest and most buildable.’ Eliminating expansion joints The stepped edge beam supporting the outer leaf is actually a connected set of precast sawtooth lintels hanging off the edge of the first floor slab. With 900mm long steps it was possible to set out the brickwork above very accurately. The designers were very anxious that there should not be any expansion joints so the mortar is a 1:2:9 (cement:lime:sharp sand) mix laid as standard 10mm thick joints. Alan Baxter has some experience with structural brickwork and lime mortars and, as Ling explains ‘There were little special features such as not having damp proof membranes – except at the position of the access ramp. This means the wall will not slide laterally and will encourage a build-up of little cracks, which will be distributed across the whole wall. Because the mortar is weak, small cracks will be repaired by the leaching of the lime.’ Wilful? Doug Branson of design architect Branson Coates says, ‘We always thought to do the building in brick. And we resisted the temptation to do it completely differently. The question we asked was, how do you take a traditional material and give it a twist? And that is literally what we did. ‘The spiralling courses actually give a sense of movement as the block goes round the corner,’ says Branson. People have said to us that we were being which, says Branson, ‘was beautifully built by main contractor Kier’s people’. Holes in the wall naughty. But you find this kind of brickwork in places like, say, the Barbican’s ramps. And if you look a the Victorian buildings opposite you see lots of examples of brickwork following the line of the structure – and no-one says that this is particularly wilful.’ There was a point during the examination of cost implications when it looked as though the sloping brickwork might have to go but the cost analysis showed that it was very little more expensive than standard brickwork. As it was, the brickies were apparently sorry to finish the project – The sloping courses and the unusual 680mm thickness of the wall produce some interesting details at openings. The logic of the sloping beds calls for sloping window and door heads following the line of the brick courses. And that is exactly what the architects designed. With reveals a brick and a half deep and traditional flat arches with special rubbers, the openings are unusually satisfying – although it turned out that in the cost review it became necessary to do openings with concealed concrete lintels and brick slips. This was also the case with the big arched openings in the two gable end walls. Branson is philosophic. It would have been better to have used traditional construction, but this ends up looking just about right. There’s an oddity, you might think, in the fact that although it costs less to do a replica version, a replica takes a lot more effort and cutting and work and detailing than it does to deploy the time-honoured method. 17 PRIVATE HOUSE A river runs through it An assertive new house on the Thames has caused a few ripples. Sue Duncan enjoys the view Client Jeremy Paxton Architect Adrian James Architects Consulting Engineer Alan Barnes Consulting Engineers Contractor G Cox Builders Brickwork Contractors Fusion Brickwork Contractors Photographs Locations Photography Ballihoo, a new family home on the Thames, sits on masonry piers which are more than muscular – they may have done weight training. Its innovative design radically re-interprets boathouse architecture while developing the potential of brick and steel structural solutions 18 B allihoo makes heads turn. Sited on the Oxfordshire bank of the River Thames at Caversham and visible from Caversham Bridge, from the towpath on the Berkshire side and from passing river craft, it is an assertive and dramatic new presence. For the owners the views are impressive, too. From the first-floor living room, huge picture windows give a grandstand view of river traffic and superb vistas up and down river and over the Thames floodplain. Ah yes, the floodplain. Despite the narrowness of the site, which rises from a narrow level strip by the river up a steep bank to a road at the rear, there was no question of major encroachment onto the floodplain. That the site could be built on at all stems from an established residential use. An inhabited boathouse had been on the 1ha site for over 30 years and Reading Borough Council, the local authority, was prepared to permit a new dwelling which was innovative but still in character with the river setting. Precedent helped with the Environment Agency too, which granted a license to overhang the river by the same distance as the previous building. The lifestyle brief was for a modern, flexible home for an active young family, exploiting the river setting and giving easy access to the water. The design responds to the brief and to the site constraints by taking the building off the ground and over the water. A re-interpretation of the decorated boathouse archetype, it stands on six pairs of massive piers which support the steelwork frame, the focal firstfloor accommodation and full-width balcony, cantilevered out over the river and large boatdock. The pitched, tileclad timber roof has deeply overhanging eaves, producing a floating effect. From enclosure into openness From the road entrance approach, Ballihoo reveals its surprises only gradually. A wooden fence screens the garden from public view and only a deeply recessed front door pierces the gable wall forming the entrance elevation, generating a modest, chapellike appearance. The sequence is one of enclosure and darkness, progressively opening out to light and lateral views. The axial route from the street entrance to the piano nobile leads past the kitchen, utility room and stairwell before expanding into the large, open-plan living area arranged around a central fireplace. Light floods into this magnificent space through full-height windows on the three aspects. The south window opens onto the full width of the site, 4.5m above the river. The ground-floor is raised 1.3m off the ground with a 1m high void below to allow floodwaters unimpeded passage across the site. A stepped bridge from the stair hall gives access to the rear of the boat dock. The back wall retains the steep bank at the rear of the property and a separate twostorey garage and games room is also built into the bank. Masonry piers James’ original design concept involved a large steel frame with a cantilever deck. However, with the lateral wind load anticipated, this would have entailed too cumbersome a frame – hence the masonry pier solution. These simple and powerful verticals are set on concrete-filled steel drum piles in the alluvial clay and carry the steel members, which are expressed at first floor and second floor levels. The 6.7m high columns, in brickfaced loadbearing blockwork, are 1m deep x 1.7m wide at their base, reducing via successive plinth details to 1.1m wide at roof level. A former associate of John Outram, James is alive to the innovative potential of brickwork. A blend of orange-red stock bricks was chosen as the main brick, with blue engineering bricks for the first few courses in the piers, which seem to ground them to the riverbank. It’s a formula altogether sympathetic to Reading’s brickwork tradition, but in a modern, stripped- down manifestation. Little is allowed to detract from the rhythm, drama and sculpted quality of the piers. Openings are marked with projecting double creasing tiles, with brick on edge at heads and with canted brick sills. The brickwork was not without challenges for the bricklayers – particularly with the setting out for each pier: there was a mere 3mm tolerance. Ballihoo has made this stretch of river more exciting, but it also had to meet more workaday requirements. Despite the large window expanse, a SAP rating of 97 has been achieved through a combination of southerly aspect, double-glazing, the thermal mass of the masonry, efficient insulation and a condensing boiler. U values for the brick walls are 0.27, and for the roof 0.21. Ballihoo should stand the test of time and whatever the river itself can throw at it – James is extremely keen to see the Thames floodwaters rise high enough to batter against those giant columns. And lose the fight. 19 STRUCTURAL BRICKWORK A civil answer Peter Watt reports on a scheme which looks to the future, while harnessing brickwork’s traditional strengths Client and Engineer Kent County Council then Medway Council Planning and Transport Directorate Main Contractors Christiani & Nielsen and May Gurney Joint Venture Peter Watt is Senior Structural Engineer at BDA 20 An important new civil engineering scheme in Kent demonstrates how the imaginative use of brickwork can benefit both infrastructure and built environment. It also disposes of a few misconceptions, showing that bricks with medium to high water absorbency and moderate compressive strength can meet structural brickwork requirements T he Gillingham Northern Link is Phase Two of the Medway Towns Northern Relief Road, a major transportation improvement project, Phase One of which was a new road tunnel under the River Medway. The new 3km relief road forms the A289 bypassing Chatham and Gillingham, linking with the New Medway Tunnel and also with the historical Chatham Docks and Maritime areas. Built to dual carriageway standard, it is part new construction and part upgrade of the existing highway infrastructure. Work commenced on Gillingham Northern Link in late 1997 with site preparation and drainage installation. Principal access and structures were 1 Part of new north wall with planter area. This and the south wall are both par t free-standing and part earth retaining brickwork structures 2 Earth retaining wall stems to north and south. Walls are of reinforced grouted cavity brickwork with reinforced brick piers 3 View of south wall showing approach ramp to pedestrian over-bridge. Both north and south walls are about 1km long with free-standing parts up to 3m high above finished ground lines 4 Detail of arch to north wall pedestrian over-bridge approach ramp 5 Head detail to north wall. Although showing English bond format this freestanding wall is collar jointed in parts using precut snap headers 6 Brickwork cladding to pedestrian over-bridge approach ramp along the north wall. Both spandrels and soffits are brick clad to match the main walling structures 1 built mainly between the summer of 1998 and the following spring. The road and full access to the new tunnel were opened to public traffic in June 1999. Brickwork structures The Medway Towns have a long historical tradition, and brickwork in buildings and in infrastructure plays a major role in the vernacular. A significant part of the link road passes through historically sensitive old dockyard and maritime areas which boast some very fine free-standing boundary walls in brick that have stood for well over 100 years. Some of these are very substantial structures. Similar boundary walls can also be seen in the towns of Gillingham and Chatham and many are constructed around former naval facilities in the area. For these reasons the choice of new brickwork structures for the Gillingham Northern Link formed part of complementary planning decisions. The good durability and low maintenance factors associated with brickwork construction were also influential in the choices made. The two principal brickwork walling structures in the scheme are the north and south boundary walls, which meet the new Medway Tunnel slip roads. The north wall runs adjacent to the Chatham Docks and Maritime areas and is about 1km in continuous length. It complements and integrates with existing dockyard walling, parts of which are retained as fully serviceable construction. The 1km long south wall is entirely new. Both walls are built as part earthretaining, part free-standing brickwork walling structures, the earth retaining function being required because of level differences at the carriageway edges. Like their older counterparts they are substantial structures. In parts of the north wall for example, the earth retaining section starts 2m below ground: above ground free-standing elements can rise up to 3m high above finished ground level. Earth retaining wall stems are formed mainly of reinforced grouted cavity brick construction with a typical overall wall stem thickness of 300mm. The free-standing wall stems are Demolishing a few misconceptions constructed using mainly 215mm thick unreinforced brickwork in English bond but collar jointed with tie systems rather than bonded through, a technique which helps achieve fair faced brickwork on both sides of a wall when using stock bricks. Piers are provided to strengthen the taller freestanding structures of the north wall. The simplicity of the structural brickwork forms used enabled rapid on-site construction and the brickwork was completed to schedule despite bad weather which continued while most of the principal walling was being built. In addition to the north and south walls the Gillingham Northern Link includes a number of less substantial free-standing and earth-retaining brick wall structures at various locations. In many cases the height of these walls is less than 1.5m and economical, fully structural solutions have been provided by mass brickwork walling, of 215mm or 328mm stem thickness. Earth retaining planter walls also use this form of mass brickwork construction, providing beneficial environmental aspects to the link road. Brickwork is also deployed as cladding to other structural forms and features. Abutments to pedestrian and railway over-bridges are of reinforced concrete clad in single 102mm thickness brickwork. The approach ramp to one pedestrian bridge has been executed as a series of increasing radii arches with both arch spandrels and soffits being fully brick clad to match the aesthetics of the overall scheme. The majority of both structural and cladding brickwork has been built in stock brickwork using a pre-blended mix of 15 per cent yellow and 85 per cent red stock bricks to match old existing walling. The use of a moderate compressive strength brick unit with higher than 7 per cent water absorption demonstrates that major brickwork free-standing and retaining wall structures do not rely upon the use of high strength, low water absorption clay bricks to achieve adequate structural and durability performance. Damp proof courses in walls have been formed using low water absorption bricks in a Designation (i) mortar as an integral part of wall stems, thus avoiding the need for separate (and structurally disruptive) sheet damp proof courses in structural walls. Detailing to the head of the north wall is flush, using special shaped brick capping, again in sympathy with existing brickwork. Gillingham Northern Link demonstrates the benefits to the built environment when a major civil engineering project exploits both the aesthetic and structural possibilities of brickwork. When used to its full structural potential, brickwork can help achieve highly competitive and economic walling solutions. It also provides an original and attractive alternative to conventional approaches, while enhancing the built environment. 2 3 4 5 6 7 21 HOUSING Sub-urban Gorbals Frank Arneil Walker reviews award-winning housing in Glasgow Client New Gorbals Housing Association Architect Phase 2 Page & Park Architects Architect Phase 3 Elder & Cannon Main Contractor John Dickie Construction Photography David Churchill The design of Moffat Gardens, one more enclave in the progressive transformation of Glasgow’s Gorbals, brought together an adventurous housing association, concerned local residents and three of the city’s leading architectural practices. The project sets a new standard for collaborative creativity questions just how urban regeneration of urban areas should be T he old Gorbals was black. Ordered streets of four-storeyed, stone tenements charred with the polluted smoke of Victorian industry. The not-so-old Gorbals of the 1960s was grey. Slabs and towers of concrete, brutally big and as brutally bare, indiscriminately scattered (or so it seemed to the pedestrian) on the tabula rasa of comprehensive redevelopment. The new Gorbals is red – and cream. Brick terraces back to street scale. But is it urban? Perhaps it is too early to say, for Glasgow’s second resurrection south of the river is still only beginning. But the signs are good, the potential recognised recently by the Saltire Society’s awards to two related housing projects added to the new brick world across the Clyde. Moffat Gardens 22 Moffat Gardens is part of the regeneration programme for East- Gorbals where the New Gorbals Housing Association, founded in the early 1990s, is building on a number of derelict cleared sites. The achievement, largely funded by Scottish Homes, is considerable. First, a masterplan was prepared. Stimulated by its enterprising director, Fraser Stewart, the association entered into discussions with members of the local community. What emerged as a priority was a desire to avoid the monotony and repetitive boredom of the 1960s and 70s. Consequently the plan devised by Page & Park Architects envisaged a variety of housing types and the creative involvement of several architectural practices. Their cooperation would not be limited to the design of particular housing blocks but would extend to collaboration on the choice of materials and forms and, significantly, to decision-making affecting the design of the public spaces unifying the overall layout. Like most other areas of Gorbals, the site at Moffat Gardens had all but lost its urban coherence. Some twoand three-storey housing had already been built to the south and west while a small factory and a single-storey public house had survived the ubiquitous demolition. The association’s plan introduced three new housing blocks, arranging these in a coordinated relationship which reinforced the street grid, re-established three- and four-storey scale, and created a small park at the centre of what is a deceptively simple rectilinear layout. Two of the three blocks were completed in early summer 1998. Page & Park has laid a strong three-storey wall of terrace housing (Phase Two) along Hayfield Street, toughening the urban edge of the site opposite the open park. In the park itself, Elder and Cannon provided what it describes as a ‘villa block’, a three- and four-storey building of flats (Phase Three) standing alone south of Hayfield Street. Yet to be completed, the third element in this collaborative composition is a clever aggregation of street ranges (Phase One) designed by Simister Monaghan Architects to mark the North-west corner of the Moffat Gardens site. Brick wall – street wall Fundamental to the urban intention of the whole project is the ‘wall’ of housing along Hayfield Street. This incorporates 21 two-, three- and fourperson flats, most of which look south across the street to the park. The wall is of red wire-cut bricks with a rusticated texture chosen to maintain design decisions already made in earlier neighbouring projects, their planar consistency of colour intensified here by matching pointing and a total abstinence from any kind of patterning or decorative detail. This principal elevation is, however, indented at several points to create balconies; some merely hole-in-the-wall, but two which are recessions rising through two storeys to the overhanging eaves of the monopitch roof. These inner planes are lined with silvering western red cedar boarding which runs horizontally with the brick coursing. This layering of the facade has been exploited asymmetrically to relate to the park opposite and undoubtedly adds shadow interest, material change and proportional intrigue to the street wall. Windows, painted a dull battleship grey, exert a regular underlying rhythm along the wall but the seeming arbitrariness of indentation and change of material remains troubling, somehow less than urban, while the sparred soffit of the tilted jutting eaves is already a cliché. Brick returns at the ends of the street block but is progressively peeled away as public space becomes private. Cream-coloured render is used on the rear elevation, though here, too, some cedar boarding provides relief. The monopitch roof dipping to the rear reduces the scale appropriately and allows some variation in ceiling heights in the cross section. But the large overhang to the north, impairing the light quality in the second-floor bedrooms, seems again an unfortunate surrender to questionable architectural fashion. Tenement in the park While the unfinished corner housing across Moffat Street from the west end of Page & Park’s terrace will add more street ranges to the new red brick Gorbals, Elder & Cannon’s tenement in the park does not. Its open space location, with only minimal obligation to respond to the lines of Hayfield Street and McNeil Street, required – and received – something completely different. Fourteen two- and threeperson flats are housed in a freestanding villa block of two elements – a four-storey ‘tower’, elliptical in plan, linked to a three-storey oblong wing. The curving north and south walls of the ellipse are built in buff bricks, a change of colour from the dominant red but one justified by the special nature of this object building and indeed by the nearby use of similar bricks in a secondary role to the red. At the east and west ends, where the ends of the ellipse have been snipped off, the living rooms are fully glazed. Raised over the third floor, which has been copper-lined above sill height to detach it visually from the brick below, is a daring elliptical slab of a roof. It too is copper-clad, oversailing walls and glazing – a strange chocolate nougat wafer pressing down on the creamy brick below. To the south is the lower block, sensibly reduced in height to relate to neighbouring housing. Render dominates in this three-storey wing, a piece of design which in itself is persuasively redolent of the 1930s. Sub-urban success In almost every way Moffat Gardens is an exemplary success. It testifies to the value of consultation with the local community. It shows what a forceful enlightened client can achieve. It proves that leading architects in the city can compete and collaborate creatively. Above all it creates a place, distinct and pleasurable. If there is still rather more space than place in these open streets, perhaps it is because in a shrinking city the new Gorbals must inevitably become sub-urban. 23 HOUSING 1 New East Enders George Demetri reports on two new faces of Docklands housing Developer Bellway Homes Architect Robert MacDonald Associates Contractors Bellway Homes (Poplar) Bovis Crowngap (Limehouse) Structural Engineers Nicholls Roach McMahon (Poplar) Clarke Nicholls Marcel (Limehouse) Photography Locations Photography Two new plush residential developments in London’s Docklands demonstrate the important contribution of facing brickwork in modern construction and the stunning effects that patterning can achieve 2 1,2 Limehouse Basin 3,4 Poplar Dock 5 Limehouse Basin T wo private-sector housing developments in the flourishing Docklands area of London provide ample proof not only of the effectiveness of patterned brickwork but also just how exciting brick can be when used in a contemporary idiom. Architect Robert MacDonald Associates has shown that the planar crispness so admired in modern architecture can be created as effectively by brick as it can by steel, concrete and glass. Furthermore, in addition to its thermal and maintenance benefits, this so-called ‘traditional’ material can provide striking contrasts with the more modern upstarts. Bellway Homes was the developer for the schemes, one at Limehouse Basin, the other at the Boardwalk in Poplar Dock. Both are blocks of flats, topped by the inevitable penthouses. Concepts 24 The architect’s desire to provide an expression of modern building techniques has led to the almost universal use of stretcher bond, extending even to the clay-paved areas. The desire for an abstract as opposed to a traditional richness has produced a form of construction which does not make use of soldier courses and other typical brickwork details. This results in what the architect considers to be a clean, unfussy effect which also provided savings in construction time. The resulting horizontality is accentuated in certain areas by alternating courses of yellow and bright red stock bricks, an effect which is a real delight even when used on multistorey panels. Because the banding breaks up the surface, any colour discrepancies in each brick type are harder to discern. Why are such simple means of articulating large planes of brickwork not used more commonly? On the down side, wandering perpends become more noticeable. Yet even this is not an unattractive sight – for anyone wanting to snuggle up to the brickwork and gaze skywards. 3 4 unsightly horizontal movement joints provided at every storey where steel angles support the brickwork at concrete edge beams. Limehouse Basin 5 Construction Both developments have broadly similar underlying constructions comprising flat-roofed, concreteframed, masonry-clad structures of varying heights with steel and glass balconies. A typical wall construction comprises a 140mm block inner leaf, 78mm partially filled insulated cavity and a 102mm outer brick leaf, all achieving a respectable U-value of 0.36. All internal wall surfaces (including party walls) have been dry-lined. Striped brickwork – partly inspired by a pub in Kentish Town Road, North London – is common to both schemes, but is by no means all-pervading, as there are also substantial areas of buff stocks which contrast both with other brickwork and with other materials. At Limehouse, smooth blue engineering bricks are used at lower levels, in some places as plinths and in others as walls to service areas and external stairs. Movement joints seem to be generous throughout. A further benefit of stripey brickwork is that it provides excellent camouflage for what can be This development comprises six multistorey blocks clustered around a marina on a site bounded by Horseferry Road and Branch Road. All are crowned by steel and glass penthouses with dramatic overhanging eaves. What strikes one immediately is the richness of colour, material and textural combinations pervading the entire scheme. The massing of the various blocks is enlivened by planes of vibrant coloured brickwork abutting sheets of vertical glazing which give way to planes of coloured render. Square windows have been used throughout as an ordering element. The architect has employed different treatments to express the various volumes, provide visual interest and help break down the scale of the development. This plurality of colour and texture is continued on horizontal surfaces, resulting in a hierarchical treatment of landscape from public to semi-public space. Buff clay pavers around the marina give way to concrete setts and finally to crisply laid creamy concrete flags edged by off-white gravel immediately in front of the main entrances to the blocks. The effort expended in creating such detailed landscaping is justified by the likely scrutiny of residents gazing down from their windows and balconies. One of the reasons for clustering the blocks around the marina was to provide as many flats as possible with views over Docklands and the surrounding regions. Steel and glass balconies are used throughout for this purpose. However, the architects’ desire to recreate the industrial warehouse aesthetic, so much a part of the area, has resulted in a gridwork of dark, foreboding steelwork balconies superimposed over some of the marina elevations which add a heavy, sombre note to what is otherwise a rich and lively development. The Boardwalk, Poplar The apartment blocks at the Boardwalk development beside Poplar Dock are arranged in a more urban configuration than those at Limehouse. There is also a greater emphasis on low-rise development inherited from the density requirements of the former London Docklands Development Corporation. The three-storey townhouses with buff brickwork and Georgian panelled front doors sit rather incongruously amid a generally bold, confident and colourful contemporary development. The three-storey perimeter blocks in Trafalgar Way face Billingsgate Market, and Canary Wharf looms on the horizon. Yet for a split second you might think you were in Rotterdam, so strong are the Dutch references on these elevations, with a touch of de Stijl here and a just a hint of Mondrian there. Sculptural forms are broken down into elemental planes using varying materials, colours and textures. Thus, the striped brickwork on one side is balanced by a rich, earthy, redrendered plane on the other, both separated by a chasm of dark steelwork balconies against a bright yellow background. Detractors may scoff at what they might construe as an exercise in facadism applied over both sites. Yet even if this were true, the ends have certainly justified the means, with both the East End developments in both Limehouse and Poplar achieving some very attractive environments in which to live. 25 PUBLIC BUILDING Stage presence A bemused Sutherland Lyall reports on a new theatre where brick is centre stage Client Contact Theatre Architect Short and Associates Structural engineers Modus Sustainability and ecodesign have become serious issues in architecture – and have begun to provide a kind of rationale for new ways of designing form. Brick has an important part to play in this movement Mechanical and electrical engineer Max Fordham & Partners Contractor Ballast Wiltshier Photography Positive Image A 26 lan Short, architect and professor at de Montfort University, claims that ‘our buildings are getting heavier.’ His most recent completed work following his Queen’s building at de Montfort is the refurbishment and expansion of the Contact Theatre in Manchester. You’re driving up Manchester’s Oxford Road and you’ve almost got through the university quarter when you skid to a halt because over there on the right beyond a recently cleared-out square is this extraordinary sight. A pale brick, three- or four-storey ramble of a building with a kind of apron down one of the front facades in waves of overlapping metal sheeting and, balancing precariously 40m up above, this amazing jumble of dislocated brick chimney things. You think Expressionism, maybe Steiner, maybe terminal, total paroxysmal mode before letting such an extraordinary show to go ahead. But yes they did and here it is and what can anyone possibly make of it? There is more rooftop fun with a row of crenellated zinc-clad chimney-style structures marching at an angle of 45º across the back of the building. This latter assemblage is actually above the heavily refurbished sixties theatre which follows the orthogonal layout of the streets. Short says he would have preferred brick for these roof structures too but the old theatre roof had not been designed to take that kind of load. To the left in front of the old theatre is an office and rehearsal block whose lower section involves a complicated screen of brick and somewhat Steineresque precast-concrete detailing behind which is an external staircase to the first floor. Fronting the lower adjacent block (with three conventional dormers jutting up beyond the eaves) are four single-storey, perforated brick sheds with outrageous peaked roofs. Over on the right beside the zinc waves is a brick cylinder containing a staircase with lavatories and storage rooms in its core. Sustainability You look a bit harder at the chimney assemblage and it begins to make a kind of visual sense. The slender unreinforced brick supports rise from a curving stripped-baroque base and there are metal struts and ties holding the mass of overhead brick together. It is, argues Short, to do with the practice’s affection for Viollet-le-Duc and his casual mixing of traditional and cutting edge construction methods – and the sympathetic know-how of engineer Steve Morley. It turns out that the great brick array in the sky, like the zinc-clad array on the roof slanting away to the left, is a series of interlinked H-shaped pot-style ventilators. For this is a building whose design is predicated to a fairly high degree on its non-mechanical environmental conditioning. Fast Ton Albers, perhaps Michael Hopkins and his vast chimneys opposite Big Ben and at Nottingham – and of course Alan Short a couple of years ago at de Montfort university. For this is the work of his office. Expressive The overlapping zinc sheeting reminds you simultaneously of half-stripped theatre billboards waiting for the elaborately edited reviews for the next shows – and those big, painted tin faces you find as entrances to Lunar Parks all over the world. But never before have you seen anything like those gigantic, crazy, chimney structures tottering up there in the sky. This is England. This is England under the planning system yoke and you find yourself astonished that the planners didn’t go into With conventional conditioning you pump air in from outside through, depending on the sophistication of the system, washers and filters and heating and cooling elements. You then distribute it through ducts or plenums to the working spaces and exhaust it back to the outside via, say, ceiling ducts. All the ducts can be quite small because the fans push the air along at a relatively high speed. However, air handling costs a lot and if there is not a dedicated building management and 27 seven or so storeys in the direction of the prevailing wind. The stack principle works with very low pressure differences and if it is reversed you can get into trouble: serious trouble as we discovered when we saw the results of wind-tunnel testing by the Welsh School of Architecture.’ Brick interiors Although the zinc waves down the front elevation are attention grabbing, you enter the building by marching up to the facade and then turning sharp left through an airlock of conventional glass doors leading to the box office and then the café. Stairs lead up to the lobby of the main theatre, a lift takes you up to the studio theatre and rehearsal space. Although the building is labyrinthine there is no especial reason why a theatre complex should not, in time-honoured fashion, be exactly that. There is quite a lot of brickwork internally with some dramatic curving upper walls around the main theatre lobby. The building relies on heavy internal masonry to maintain thermal stability. Here Short has used calciumsilicate bricks. He’s a real enthusiast – particularly because of their precision and their range of colours. It needs to be said that these features are only partly supported by the reality. Because the joints are raked quite deeply and the individual bricks are so sharp edged, you immediately notice any irregularity in bricklaying. Brick exteriors maintenance team, environmental conditioning systems can go wrong. In the old Contact Theatre there was a tendency to switch off the mechanical ventilation because fan noise interfered with performances. So the theatre people were very receptive when Alan Short suggested a non-mechanical airhandling building for their ultimately successful Lottery bid. Slow 28 It is a system which deploys the relatively well understood ‘stack effect’. Slow-moving air is sucked into the building at ground level where it is heated (or not) and is slowly evacuated at roof level. The principle is simple, but there are other issues. Short says: ‘If you are forcing air into a building you can do it through small holes. But if you are letting it drift in you need big openings at top and bottom. There is a big rock venue next door and a university audiometry department nearby so there is a special need on this site to somehow kill the noise from outside – and stop it escaping. You also need, with big openings, to devise a way of keeping the rain out.’ And that is how the idea of the H pot configuration developed, following research by engineers Max Fordham into ways of avoiding downdrafts and attenuating noise – for which brick is apparently an ideal material. The towering height is a consequence of the need to have the outlet ventilation as high as possible above the building and surrounding ridgelines. Short explains, ‘There are tall university building of The exterior bricks are mellow red soft mud bricks which, although machinemade, have the irregular, random appearance of handmade bricks. Short says that whenever it is possible he likes to use local sand for mortar. But it’s impossible to maintain consistency and colour on a big job. So he reluctantly used a premixed mortar: ‘a natural mortar with a bit of colour in it to make it look more natural,’ he notes sardonically. Form follows … It is a little difficult not to keep your fingers crossed behind your back when you nod agreement as the apparently inevitable logic of the Contact Theatre’s design unfolds. This is actually a design of great joy, some inevitable infelicities of detail design and madness and, judging by the casual comfortableness of the users, a design of sound method. But it would be a pity if anybody came away with the notion that this building was the outcome merely of cold rational reasoning. RESTORATION Wash and brush up on JLE 1 Michael Hammett takes a look at the nineteenth-century brickwork put to new use at London Bridge Station Client London Transport: Jubilee Line Extension Project Architects JLE Architects and Weston Williamson Main Contractor Costain Taylor Woodrow JV Specialist subcontractor J&W Renovation Co Main photography QA Photos Brick masonry is one of civilisation’s most enduring artefacts. Robust and durable, undemanding of maintenance, it can often survive its original purpose by centuries. When alterations and restructuring at London Bridge Station were undertaken to provide access to the new Jubilee Line extension of the London Underground, extensive brickwork below the original station, built in the 1830s, was pressed into new service Entrance photography Dennis Gilbert Underground station and between it and the mainline concourse. The warehousing was served by three public roads that run below the station, linking Tooley Street on the north side to St Thomas Street on the south. The most westerly of these, Joiner Street, has been closed for incorporation of the space into the new station. As trafficked and storage areas they were never required to be habitable or high-quality spaces and basic civil engineering construction in mass brickwork was therefore considered appropriate. No barrier to moisture is normally incorporated in such construction, and there was no particular concern about staining caused by the inevitable percolation of moisture from above. A new look for the old brickwork 2 L Michael Hammett is Senior Architect at BDA 1 Precast-concrete ceiling panels with brick-slip facing in the new ticket hall of the Underground station emulate the vaulting of the old brickwork 2 Typical state of the brickwork masonry to be reused ondon Bridge has always been a mainline railway terminal into which trains run on viaducts from the counties to the South-east of the city. To be at the same level as the trains, the passenger concourse is raised above the neighbouring streets on a complex of vaulted spaces. These are of traditional, heavy, brickwork construction in semicircular barrel forms, some of which intersect at right angles to create large floor areas roofed by groined vaulting bearing on freestanding piers. The bold structural forms of these spaces, which have been used predominantly for bonded warehousing, give them an imposing appearance. Rather than demolish and clear away the masonry to make way for a new installation, the existing structure was modified to create major passenger access ways to the new New access and communication routes within the station complex and a new Underground station have required intricate planning and implementation. However, it has proved economical and practical to form new openings in the existing brickwork, remove walls and effect alternative support for some of the vaulting to create attractive and exciting new facilities while maintaining support of the existing mainline station above. An important part of converting the old brick structure was extensive cleaning. During 160 or so years of service, percolation of moisture from above has led to leaching of lime and salts down through the masonry, and this has produced extensive staining and encrustation on the surface of the brickwork. Some surfaces have, from time to time, been decorated with lime distemper, but otherwise there has been little if any maintenance work. The brickwork in Stainer and Weston 29 3 3 3 The newly cleaned groined vaulting of the escalator hall below the main line station concourse 4 The new entrance to the underground station – formerly Joiner Street 4 30 Streets, the roadways under the station that remain open, still shows the considerable accumulation of lime encrustation, leached deposits from the masonry, hydrocarbon and other airborne pollutants, dirt and grime that has built up on the surface. Two principal methods of cleaning might be considered appropriate – chemical cleaning and abrasive blasting. The latter was chosen because it was considered that it offers more control. The pressure of the blasting must be regulated very carefully to avoid excessive scouring of the mortar and damage to the surface of the bricks. Developments in equipment, abrasives and blasting techniques have improved considerably within the last decade. Harsh blast cleaning that results in the removal of the surface of bricks along with stains and blemishes should rightfully be regarded as crude, insensitive and inept. Specialist contractors were invited to survey the brickwork and tender for its cleaning, repair and modification. Part of the negotiations included execution of trials to demonstrate proposed techniques and their results. Requirements of Health and Safety legislation govern many techniques used in cleaning masonry. In addition, at London Bridge the presence of a tunnelling access point for the Jubilee Line Extension adjacent to the areas to be cleaned imposed additional restrictions – no dust or fumes could be produced that might be drawn down into the tunnel. Blasting with waterborne abrasives rather than with dry ones is generally preferable, because the latter generates excessive dust – a risk to health. However, large quantities of water are used with the former method and that would also have been unacceptable. As a compromise, blasting was done with a minimum- water slurry of fine olivine abrasive. This removes dirt, but clings to the brickwork, necessitating a rinse with clean water. Clinging slurry also obscures the work and repeated blasting is often necessary. All run-off had to be collected in tanks and removed. At each end of the escalator hall (below the mainline station concourse) new reinforced-concrete beams were inserted to support sections of the vaulting. Shoring needles were inserted through the vaulting just above the new support level and the brickwork below removed. Once the new beams were in place, new sections of brickwork were inserted to resettle the vaulting on the new support. For aesthetic reasons, face brickwork in these areas was rebuilt, using reclaimed bricks jointed in natural hydraulic lime mortar to match the original. Where unaltered, the cleaned brickwork was carefully repointed. The realistic appreciation of the results of cleaning is very important. The original brickwork at London Bridge was never intended to provide dry interiors and fine finishes and some dampness and staining as a result of percolation from above had been tolerated. It would be unreasonable to expect cleaning to result in pristine brickwork that would henceforth maintain a fine and unblemished appearance. Happily the supervising architect understood properly the rugged, workaday nature of the structure and his expectation that the cleaned brickwork should have a ‘romantic’ character has been interpreted very well indeed. DESIGN GUIDANCE Brickwork openings Malcolm Barnett examines how to use brickwork dimensions in your favour 1 2 3 4 W hen dimensioning brickwork, and positioning and sizing openings, it is preferable to use increments based on the length of a brick, then no cut bricks will be required and brickwork around openings will be symmetrical and the bond regular. However, this is not always possible and these notes deal with accommodating opening widths that are not of whole brick increments of standard metric bricks, particularly openings for ‘Co-ordinated Size Components’, a standard range of door and window units of metric modular co-ordinated sizes (typically required for health service buildings designed in compliance with Health Technical Memorandum no 55 ). Figure1: It is often possible to base overall dimensions on whole brick increments, but not always to size and position openings to suit. Half-brick increments should be the second preference. This will result in either broken bond (alternate courses of half and two cut bricks above and below the centre of the opening) or reverse bond. Figure 2: With reverse bond the jambs of an opening are not symmetrical – not generally obvious except where the jamb bricks are a contrasting colour. Figure 3: When openings cannot be of brick dimensions, for example when using some ‘Co-ordinated Size Components’, dimension brickwork between them using whole brick incre- ments, accepting that the overall length of the wall will not be a brick dimension and broken bond will occur at the centre of the openings. Figure 4: If there are overriding reasons for making the overall length of the wall a brick dimension, for example where a large expanse of multi-storey brickwork has a few openings at one level, the openings should be positioned with their centre lines on brick dimensions. There will be no broken bond above or below the openings, but cut bricks will be necessary in the brickwork between some openings depending on their size and spacing. Malcolm Barnett is Education Architect at the BDA. Contact him for details of CPD and university lecture services 31 Ambion Brick Co Ltd Swan House, Bosworth Hall, The Park, Market Bosworth, Warwickshire CV13 0LJ Tel 01455 292888 Fax 01455 292877 Email [email protected] Northern Sales Office Tel 01388 603008 South East Sales Office Tel 01403 241555 South West Sales Office Tel 01752 880659 Baggeridge Brick plc Fir Street, Sedgley, Dudley, West Midlands DY3 4AA Tel 01902 880555 Fax 01902 880432 Sedgley Sales Office Tel 01902 880666 Kingsbury Sales Office Tel 01827 260022 Waresley Sales Office Tel 01299 251300 Hartlebury Sales Office Tel 01299 250400 Baggeridge Brick Consultancy Tel 0207 2366222 Rudgwick Sales Office Tel 01403 822212 Beacon Hill Brick Company Ltd Wareham Road, Corfe Mullen, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 3RX Tel 01202 697633 Fax 01202 605141 Email [email protected] www.beaconhill-brick.co.uk Blockleys Brick Ltd Sommerfeld Road, Trench Lock, Telford, Shropshire TF1 5RY Tel 01952 251933 Fax 01952 641900 Email [email protected] www.blockleys.com Sales Office and Showroom Tel 01952 251933 Export Sales Office Tel 01952 251934 Bovingdon Brickworks Ltd Pudds Cross, Bovingdon, Near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP3 0NW Tel 01442 833176 Fax 01442 834539 Email [email protected] Broadmoor Brickworks Ltd Whimsey, Cinderford Gloucester GL14 3JA Tel 01594 822255 Fax 01594 826782 The Bulmer Brick & Tile Co Ltd Brickfields, Bulmer, Sudbury, Suf folk CO10 7EF Tel 01787 269232 Fax 01787 269040 32 © 2000 The Brick Development Association Limited Woodside House Winkfield Windsor Berks SL4 2DX Tel 01344 885651 Fax 01344 890129 E-mail [email protected] Website www.brick.org.uk Carlton Brick Ltd Grimethorpe, Near Barnsley, South Yorkshire S72 7BG Tel 01226 711521 Fax 01226 780417 Direct Sales Line Tel 01226 715000 Charnwood Forest Brick Limited Old Station Close, Shepshed, Leicestershire LE12 9NJ Tel 01509 503203 Fax 01509 507566 Chelwood Brick Limited Adswood Road, Cheadle Hulme, Cheadle, Cheshire SK8 5QY Tel 0161 485 8211 Fax 0161 486 1968 Kingscourt Brick Kingscourt, County Cavan, Ireland Tel +353 (0)42 9667317 Fax +353 (0)42 9667206 Chiddingstone Brickworks Ltd Bore Place, Chiddingstone, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 7AR Tel 01732 463712 Fax 01732 740264 Marshalls Clay Products Ltd Head Office Southowram, Halifax, West Yorks HX3 9SY Tel 01422 306000 Fax 0113 220 3555 Sales Office Howley Park Woodkirk, Dewsbury, West Yorks WF12 7JJ Tel 0113 220 3535 Scotland Sales Office Tel 0141 333 0985 Coleford Brick & Tile Co Ltd The Royal Forest of Dean Brickworks, Cinderford, Gloucestershire GL14 3JJ Tel 01594 822160 Fax 01594 826655 WH Collier Limited Adswood Road, Cheadle Hulme, Cheadle, Cheshire SK8 5QY Tel 0161 485 8211 Fax 0161 486 1968 Dennis Ruabon Limited Hafod Tileries, Ruabon, Wrexham LL14 6ET Tel 01978 843484 Fax 01978 843276 Freshfield Lane Brickworks Limited Danehill, Haywards Heath, Sussex RH17 7HH Tel 01825 790350 Fax 01825 790779 Email [email protected] www.flb.uk.com Hammill Brick Limited Eastry, Sandwich, Kent CT13 0EH Tel 01304 617613 Fax 01304 611036 Hanson Bricks Europe Stewartby, Bedford MK43 9LZ London Tel 08705 258258 Kempston Tel 08705 258258 Butterley Tel 08705 258258 Desimpel Tel 08705 258258 Fax 01234 762041 www.hanson-brickseurope.com Ibstock Brick Ltd Ibstock, Leicestershire, LE67 6HS Tel 01530 261999 Fax 01530 257457 www.ibstock.co.uk Scotland Glasgow Tel 0870 9034001 North West Roughdales Tel 0870 9034002 Parkhouse Tel 0870 9034007 North East Nostell Tel 0870 9034003 Throckley Tel 0870 9034004 Eastern Leicester Tel 0870 9034008 Dorket Head Tel 0870 9034009 Hathernware Tel 0870 9034016 West Midlands Lodge Lane Tel 0870 9034006 South West Cattybrook Tel 0870 9034010 Pinhoe Tel 0870 9034011 South East Laybrook Tel 0870 9034012 London London Tel 0870 9034013 Normanton Brick Co Ltd Wakefield Road Brickworks, Normanton, West Yorkshire WF6 1BG Tel 01924 892142 Fax 01924 223455 Northcot Brick Limited Blockley, Near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire GL56 9LH Tel 01386 700551 Fax 01386 700852 Ormonde Brick Ltd Castlecomber, County Kilkenny, Ireland Tel +353 (0)56 41323 Fax +353 (0)56 41314 Phoenix Brick Company Ltd The Brickworks, Campbell Drive, Barrow Hill, Chesterfield S43 3PR Tel 01246 473171 Fax 01246 280345 Red Bank Manufacturing Co Ltd Measham, Swadlincote Derbyshire DE12 7EL Tel 01530 270333 Fax 01530 273667 Email [email protected] Redland Tile & Brick Sales and admin 61 Largy Road, Crumlin, Co Antrim BT29 4RR Tel 02894 422791 Fax 02894 422165 www.redland-tile-brick.co.uk Sussex Hand Made Brick Ltd Fourteen Acre Lane Three Oaks Hastings East Sussex TN35 4NB Tel 01424 814344 Fax 01424 814707 The Wemyss Brick Co Ltd 45-49 Cowley Street, Methil, Fife KY8 3QQ Tel 01592 712313 Fax 01592 716349 Email [email protected] www.wemyssbrick.co.uk The York Handmade Brick Co Ltd Forest Lane, Alne, York YO61 1TU Tel 01347 838881 Fax 01347 838885 Email [email protected] The contents of this publication are intended for general guidance only and any person intending to use these contents for the purpose of design, construction or repair of brickwork or any related project should first consult a professional advisor. The Brick Development Association, its servants, and any persons who contributed to or who are in any way connected with this publication accept no liability arising from negligence or otherwise howsoever caused for any injury or damage to any person or property or as a result of any use or reliance on any method, product, instruction, idea, or other contents of this publication.
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