Brick



Bricks are usually made of clay fired at high temperatures. They are used in masonry for the construction of walls and columns, in this case, bricks are made in a round shape. Currently, there exist many types of bricks, among which we find: perforated brick, used in facade designing; special brickwork, used outdoors to get a particular finish and refractory bricks, located in places to endure high temperatures, such as ovens or chimney. There are several techniques for masonry such as simple masonry, which only uses the basic material for bricks. We also have armed masonry, used mostly in military buildings and it adds steel or iron structures to bricks in order to reinforce them media type="file" key="REC004.WAV" width="300" height="50"

**use of brick in construction and public spaces** . Today, most buildings are built with bricks. The use of brick, has become so common that most public spaces in cities have a longevity comparable to stone; its ease of installation, adaptability, manufacturing (bricks can b  e of different sizes and shapes) and transportation. Finally, the brick is and will for many years, an essential element in building public places in cities and buildings.

media type="file" key="REC009.WAV" //**Worksheet 2**//

Brick __ compares __ favorably __ with __ stone __ as __ a structural material for its fire-and-weather resisting qualities and for the ease of production, transportation, and laying. The size of bricks __ is __ limited by the need for efficient drying, firing, and handling, but shapes, along with the techniques of bricklaying, have varied widely throughout history. Special shapes can be produced by molding to meet particular structural or expressive requirements ( for example, wedge-shaped bricks are sometimes employed in arch construction and bricks with rounded faces in columns). Bricks may be used in construction only in conjunction with mortar, since the unit is too small, too light, and too irregular to be stabilized by weight. Each course must be laid on an ample mortar bed with mortar filling the vertical joints. The commonest ancient Roman bricks were cut into triangles and laid with the base out and the apex set into a concrete filling that provided additional strength. Columns with rounded bricks Regular bricks are bonded either as headers (short side out) or stretchers (long side out). Standard modern types provide a ratio of width to length of slightly less than 1:2 to permit a wide variety of bonding patterns within a consistent module, or standard of measurement. Brick which has been used since the 4 th millennium BC, was the chief building material in the ancient Near East. The versatility of the medium was expanded in ancient Rome by improvements in the manufacture of both brick and mortar and by new techniques of laying and bonding. Employed throughout the Middle Ages, brick grained greater popularity from the 16 th. Century on, particularly in northern Europe. It is widely used in the 20 th Century, often for nonbearing walls in steel frame constructions.