Brick: A Heavyweight for Modern Exteriors

This ideabook wraps up my series on how exterior materials affect modern home design. While metal and fiber cement, and in some places stucco, are not traditional methods for cladding a building, brick is certainly rooted in traditional architecture and construction. Yet the days of using the modular clay units in load-bearing applications has waned — the architect Louis I. Kahn famously asked of a brick what it wanted to be; the brick replied, "An arch." Today, bricks are commonly just a veneer on a facade like other materials.

As in my other ideabooks, the examples here show brick used as an exterior material in a modern or contemporary manner. Brick is not as popular as other materials for these types of designs, but it's appropriate in temperate climates where cavity wall applications are beneficial. Even then, brick is not the predominant material. These are not ranch houses covered in brick, glass and roof shingles; they use brick as another means of expression, particularly alongside wood, for effect.