Brick is the “background” to our lives
6/15/2010A Wienerberger-sponsored lecture from Angela Brady
RIBA presidential hopeful Angela Brady addressed architects, students and designers from across the UK at the latest Wienerberger lecture. Entitled Brick: As Safe as Houses, the talk covered innovative uses of brick, its aesthetic appeal and the performance credentials of this enduring building material.
"Brick provides the ‘background' to our lives," said Angela, the director of London-based Brady Mallalieu Architects who has announced her intention to run for the RIBA presidency this summer. "I was born in a brick hospital, was taken back to a brick house, went to a brick school, studied at a brick university, lived all my life in a brick-built street. This is a building material that has been around for thousands of years and has remained popular because it is not only durable and beautiful, but also because it can be understood on a human scale - you can hold a brick in one hand and lay the mortar with the other. There is a great loyalty to it among architects and clients who are very fond of a brick finish."
A straw poll of attendees at the lecture, held at RIBA headquarters in Portland Place in London, showed that more than two-thirds were currently working in brick with only a handful using more modern methods such as prefabricated timber panels or hi-tech stainless steel panels, Angela then introduced the 80-or-so invited guests to the inventive use of brick in the façade of several of the recent Wienerberger Brick Award winners and demonstrated a number of brick-based Brady Mallalieu Designs, including the eye-catching rotunda of the St Catherine's Foyer and the splendid Highbury Crescent which used Wieneberger's distinctive Smeed Dean London stock brick. Angela showed how the use of colour, texture and design can bring buildings to life and argued that the use of brick was not simply the ‘default option' of the unimaginative social housing contractor, but instead offers an unrivalled pallet of aesthetic options, with inbuilt safety credentials.
She said: "Brick is an extremely adaptable material and can be used to create some exciting contemporary designs or recreate the heritage finish of an historic building. It allows architects to express modern concepts while retaining a link to the historic British vernacular. Its additional safety credentials - as a fire retardant material with inherent strength - allows architects to focus on the designs without having to worry that they are compromising on safety."
Her talk was the fourth in a series of lectures sponsored by Wienerberger, the world's largest brick manufacturer, and follows previous events headed by former RIBA presidents Maxwell Hutchinson and George Ferguson, and architect, historian and academic Dr James Campbell.
Details of the next Wienerberger-sponsored lecture will be made available in the autumn but anyone wanting to attend should register their interest by going on-line at www.architects.brick.co.uk, contact 0161 491 8200 or emailing architects@wienerberger.co.uk
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Photo caption:
Angela Brady delivers her address at the Wienerberger lecture
Notes to Editors:
For more information please contact the PR team
Angela Brady
Noted for her appearances on Channel 4's The Home Show, Angela is a practicing architect and an enthusiastic public speaker, eager to inspire the next generation of architectural talent, and has worked closely with Riba and the Open City organisations to develop classroom workshops for children. She holds external posts with the Mackintosh School of Architecture and the London Metropolitan School of Architecture; is a Vice Chair of the Civic Trust Awards and is fellow and Council member of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland.
Founded in 1987, Brady Mallalieu has picked up a number of design awards and been responsible for delivering stunning projects such as St Catherine's Foyer housing and sports centre and the Highbury Crescent housing scheme. Current projects include 200 newly completed homes at Mastmaker Road in Isle of Dogs and further housing and health care projects in Islington and the South East.
Wienerberger
With 227 plants in 27 countries, Wienerberger is the world's largest manufacturer of bricks. It is also Europe's second largest manufacturer of clay roof tiles and a market-leader in clay pavers.
Wienerberger has been present in the UK for a number of years and is particularly known for its Terca brand of clay facing bricks.
In 2007, the company acquired Baggeridge Brick in the UK, which significantly increased its range to over 300 products. The further acquisition of roofing specialist, Sandtoft Roof Tiles Ltd in 2008 consolidated its market position as number 3 in the UK and added to the breadth and depth of its extensive product and service offering.
Today, Wienerberger Ltd offers UK customers one of the broadest product portfolios in the business, including clay facing bricks (stock and wire-cut), specialist engineering bricks, domestic and commercial pavers, as well as the Corium cladding system and a full range of clay, concrete and slate roofing products. The latest addition to the UK offering is Ceram-validated Porotherm clay block, a precision engineered structural wall system which is extensively used across mainland Europe.
Wienerberger believes that the use of natural clay products helps to deliver a sustainable environment which is aesthetically attractive and architecturally sympathetic to its surroundings. Worldwide, the company is committed to minimising its environmental footprint and to maximising the long-term sustainability of the built environment and the UK Warnham factory has become the first brick manufacturing facility to be accredited with the responsible sourcing standard BES 6001.
For further information on Wienerberger and the range of products available, please visit our website www.wienerberger.co.uk
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