Brick is a durable and versatile material with a long history in construction. It is also an essential building material in our communities, used to construct homes, schools, hospitals, libraries, town halls, pubs and places of worship. In modern design it has found new applications. Thanks to the innovation of masonry support systems in optimising the ways it can be used to create a definitive aesthetic, brickwork has helped regenerate areas whilst preserving local architectural character. Matthew Foster, Special Projects Detailer of IG Masonry Support looks at how masonry support products have enabled more creative and ambitious brickwork designs in buildings throughout the UK.
Brickwork continues to play an important role in an architectural landscape that remains true to its history. Brick is one of our most traditional and cherished building materials thanks to its resilience, low maintenance and fire-safe properties. But the evolution of brick slip units, for example, means brick is increasingly finding favour with architects as much for its versatility, as its reliability.
Design freedom
Brickwork enables a wealth of intricate detailing opportunities and can ensure a brick-based building sits perfectly within its surrounding environment. Feature details such as brick soffits, deep reveals and flying beams continually make for stunning exteriors, enabling truly unique designs to be created.
To meet this growing demand, offsite manufactured brick slip units fill a huge gap in the market. Intricate designs are no longer in the domain of skilled craftspeople; they can be created in the quality-controlled, efficient environment of a factory, without the need for any lengthy and costly fabrication onsite.
Offsite manufactured solutions excel in creating intricate brickwork detailing that would be costly and complicated to fabricate onsite. Traditional brickwork methods require time and expertise to achieve complex and uniform brickwork detailing to a project’s brief, yet with prefabricated solutions this level of detail and replication simply isn’t an issue. Taking the construction of complex brick features offsite into factory-controlled conditions drives the level of quality and consistency that is needed to achieve excellence and long-term value across all construction projects.
Blending heritage with innovation
The Island Quarter, a £650 million mixed use development in Nottingham, showcases the potential of modern brick solutions. This three-storey, canal-side destination features 20 restaurants, bars and cafes within a 36-acre nature-filled landscape. The design draws inspiration from the site’s Victorian train station and warehouse buildings as well as the nearby historic Lace Market.
As part of this high-profile, complex project, IG Masonry Support was selected to design and manufacture 19 Brick Slip Arches that met the structural and aesthetic requirements for The Canal Turn building within the development.
Having successfully completed a number of similarly complex projects in conjunction with brickwork contractor, Lee Marley, IG’s brief was to design and manufacture 19 Brick Slip Arches, 17 at ground level, and two at fourth-floor level, of the site’s main building. The greatest challenge in this respect was coordinating the brickwork configuration of two deep-soffit arches, which were to meet at a 90-degree angle at the structure’s ground level corner. In addition, the siting and size of two large arches at the building’s uppermost level provided a potential issue.
The experience and expertise of IG Masonry Support’s technical team was essential to ensuring the 90-degree corner arches’ unique formation complemented the surrounding building work. Following extensive research and detailed assessments, a complex system involving a large volume of steel and brickwork was designed and embedded within the structure’s corner section, thus providing a suitable base for the deep-soffit arches to meet at the correct angle. For the finish, IG’s half-arch solution combined with its innovative B.O.S.S. deep-soffit system, proved ideal.
Thanks to the design skills of our technical team in supplying a solution that was bespoke and precision-made for this application, the corner arches were an identical fit. They provided the impressive building with a unique feature and an aesthetically-pleasing finish. The prefabricated nature of the arches not only guaranteed their controlled and high-quality manufacture, it led to a more rapid and cost-effective installation, with the units being delivered straight to site for immediate implementation. This outcome would not have been possible with traditional brickwork and might have delayed The Island Quarter’s scheduled and much-anticipated opening in late 2022.
Brick remains a popular choice for specifiers across the UK. With advances in technology enabling the production of stunning prefabricated brickwork facades, architects can achieve both architectural excellence and a high quality finish on site every time, whilst also incorporating unique brickwork details that add personality and identity to building exteriors.