Bricks Now & Then: The Oldest Man-Made Building Material

Chris van Uffelen

Hardcover | 224 pp | 21.5 x 2.5 x 27.8 cm

Braun | 2019 | 9783037682517

Featuring buildings from the past and present, this beautiful book demonstrates how the use and popularity of bricks has not diminished one bit over the millennia, and is even gathering popularity today. Historical and contemporary brick edifices are featured showing the wide range of applications and design possibilities.

Buildings made of this fabric from very different epochs and cultures all over the world are always astonishing, and the world’s best architects have explored the qualities of brickwork. A key characteristic for its success has always been easy planning through the standardisation of production and the resulting harmonised construction process. Amazing constructive qualities, inexpensive and at the same time environmentally friendly production as well as longevity are among the qualities that are particularly valued today. 

Bricks are the only non-natural building material that can look back at several thousand years of history. As Mies van der Rhohe stated: “Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins”.