Historic Brickwork: A Design Resource, with Calder Loth

Architectural historian Calder Loth presents a course about historic brickwork, one of the oldest and most enduring of building materials.

About the Course:
A vast proportion of classical and traditional architecture is constructed of brick, one of the oldest and most enduring of building materials. Brick bonds and details lend character and interest to buildings. Yet many architects overlook the value of brickwork as a design resource, too often relying on mechanical veneers. Using many illustrations, this course examines different brickwork styles found on American buildings from the colonial period into the twentieth century. The discussion will include European origins, regional styles, brick manufacturing, mortar joint types, as well as decorative details.

00:00 Roman Brick
06:06 Bond Types: English Bond; Dutch Cross Bond; English Cross Bond; Flemish Bond Dutch Bond; Monk Bond; Header Bond; American Bond; Stretcher Bond
37:39 Colonial Brick Details
52:11 Mortar Joints and Other Details

This film was made possible by the Estate of Christopher H. Browne and the Orville Gordon Browne Foundation.

A Special Thanks to our Presenting Sponsor of Online Education: Douglas C. Wright Architects

Receive credit for this course:

About the Instructor:
Calder Loth is Senior Architectural Historian for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and a member of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art Advisory Council. He was the recipient of the 2010 ICAA Board of Directors Honor Award and the 2017 Virginia AIA Honor Award for significant contributions to the understanding of Virginia's built environment. He is the author of Congressional Resolution 259 honoring the 500th anniversary of the birth of Andrea Palladio, passed unanimously.

[creestee]

i am so glad im alive today. ive never guessed that i would be able to listen, watch and learn about bricks. kid's today are sure lucky.

[cateb]

I can’t get enough of Calder Loth’s presentations/lectures. Thorough, engaging, and impeccably presented. I listen to them over and over and never tire of them! Thank you!

[jaredsumrall]

I am a brick laborer on the Gulf Coast beach of Mississippi. I am fulfilled.

[playingthepiano]

Professor Loth is a first-rate teacher with a gift for making complex material memorable. Thank-you!

[marinedrive]

Fantastic presentation of historical brickwork and of the decorative effects achieved by using different bonds. Such fine brickwork now tends to be the preserve of the very wealthy because of the costs involved in sourcing materials and labour.

[AntPDC]

Another superb and engaging presentation. Thank you again Mr Loth.

[robsonger]

I sent this video to my colleague before I had a chance to watch it...he told me its a 'must' watch....and it was..is.
Having taught brickwork myself for many years it was great to hear the in depth explanations and histories of your research. Two things came to my mind towards the end, that mixed bond of a course of Flemish followed by a course of English, I would look at what is immediately after the quoin closer, if its a stretcher then the bond is a variant of English, if it is a header then its a variant of Flemish. (I briefly mention this in one of my videos - the fine art of brickwork - Bonding Lesson 5)
I've also sent this video to my evening class students in a hope that it will generate even more enthusiasm in them.
Thank you so much for sharing all the insight and information.

[dreed]

I've been interested in this and seeking authoritative sources for years! What a great resource. There are differences in the bricks found in the early colonies along the Gulf of Mexico. Knowing the difference can help you identify ruins. There are lost structures on old maps that nobody today knows the true location of and local historians still seek. Knowing who built an early customs house and the source of their bricks is essential knowledge for fieldwork!

[r.t.dominguez]

I'm a big fan Professor Loth! I loved your series of classical lectures. Modified mine based on yours! 💚

[johnnysecular]

omg this sounds so interresting in the first ten minutes; i’m downloading for the plane. i been obsessed with staring at brick in the last two years and i’m travelling to the Netherlands in part to stare at brick hahaha

[Mrcool]

Ill tell ya what...I am a, well a nerd for this type of stuff, and I absolutely love this video and all the other videos Loth does. I wish I could go back and get my degree in Historic Architecture. That is truly the most fascinating stuff to me. Well Hist Architecture or ancient pre history architecture like buildings in bronze age and stuff like that. It is super awesome and thanks a bunch!

[kimberlyperrotis]

The “penciling” technique reminds me of the fairly recent discovery that in gothic cathedrals the original stone work was painted and “better” masonry joint lines painted on, for regularizing, obscuring, or highlighting the appearance of the joints. Many restorations have been using this technique, where it was discovered that this was indeed the original finish. It’s controversial because many people think the stonework should be “natural”, but that just isn’t how they were designed. I have been following the cleaning and restoration of these cathedrals with interest, the removal of 800-900 years of smoke and grime has revealed wonderful things. In addition to the regular use of many candles and incense, braziers were brought in for the elite in their dedicated pews and for some baptisms, and often there were accidental fires that contributed to the heavy smoke buildup. Of course, wood and coal smoke has changed the original exterior colors almost beyond recognition. Most of this work is just regular, but gentle, cleaning and scrubbing.

[vaevictis]

Several comments:
1) Ancient Roman brick has not always necessarily been covered up. There are many surviving structures, especially in Ostia, which have been featuring both load-bearing exposed brick buildings and concrete core structures faced with brick (be it in the form of *opus testaceum or opus reticulatum*, especially in Hadrianic times.

2) Fired brick has not been lost in the Middle Ages, in fact in 13-15th century was really a golden age of exposed brick structure in much of Central and Southern Europe, especially where good stone quarries were missing. North European Brick Gothic (*Backsteingotik* in German) is the highlight of how much the masonry techniques developed - some examples (out of tenths of thousands) are St. Anne's Church of Vilnius, Altes Rathaus of Hanover, Rathaus of Tangermünde, great part of Old Lübeck, etc. Many of the timber buildings of North Europe also feature brick masonry infills, check Altländer farmhouse in Stade, Germany. There are however many survivings of brick buildings from 5th-11th centuries throughout Europe, primarily Central Italy and Germany, commonly grouped up as Brick Romanesque \ Backsteinromanik.


3) Pantheon is actually a concrete building, brick is only a facing (a sort of opus incertum followed by another layer of brick veneer followed by stucco \ marble cladding.

[TWOCOWS]

I LOVE Calder. what a wonderful teacher, knowledgeable, unassuming but in depth educator. Explains everything because he knows everything about these stuff, including their greek or latin meaning of the words. Just one correction: we did not import masons from England to work on the brick structures, but imported brick layers. Masons work on masonry/stone, not bricks.

[Mukundanghri]

Sublime to ridiculous? I happened to fancy the ridiculous. It appears artistic and not static. Did learn a tremendous amount of information from this lecture and I will be rewatching it.

[kimberlyperrotis]

We don’t see much brick here on the West Coast because it’s so seismically active and bricks (or stone or concrete blocks) can’t be used structurally in this geologic environment. Brick decorative veneers are fairly popular and some all-brick garden structures, like low walls and planters, are still built, if they’re not to house people or other animals.

[AntonioCostaRealEstate]

This is a theme you can go back watching to glean as much inspiration and information as possible whether you want to become a connoisseur, a practicing architect looking to enrich your arsenal of ideas, perhaps a resourceful mason, or just a builder.

[bigbufobufo]

Fascinating examples of brickwork done in historic buildings in my home state of Virginia

[PaddleDogC]

Cool I'm at it 50 years. Have tons of old brick books some back to 1700's

[jeremynicoletti]

I happen to be building a brick stem wall on a greenhouse, and I was wondering what sorts of brick patterns I could use for this stem wall. Lo and behold I found this video, with more information on precisely that than I ever thought to find on YouTube. Thanks for providing this!