As seen in Domain.com.au, 3rd October, 2024.
By Kate Farrelly
Something that looks good forever? It sounds too good to be true, but when it comes to the humble brick, proponents say the proof is all around us.
There are brick buildings still intact today that date back thousands of years and brick buildings built today that are expected to last hundreds of years into the future.
“You can look at terraces that were built in the 1850s, so they’re 170 years old now, and the bricks are all there,” says architect Tone Wheeler, principal of Environa Studio and president of the Australian Architecture Association.
“The timber floors have had to be replaced, the kitchens and bathrooms have been replaced, but the bricks themselves have lasted. And bricks have the ability to age really beautifully.”
Wheeler quotes a professor he admired in his student days: “All construction materials age and deteriorate, only brick mellows.”
For SJB architecture director Adam Haddow, bricks hold an inherent warmth that helps to create a sense of intimacy often lacking in concrete buildings.
“The nice thing about a brick is not every brick is the same,” says Haddow. “So, you get this velvety effect across the surface of the bricks, which gives the building a softer, more personable quality which is almost impossible to get out of any other kind of contemporary material.”
Haddow has designed many brick buildings, including Newcastle’s Huntington, a mixed-use residential development that was among last year’s Think Brick Award winners.
It’s perhaps no accident the jury found the aesthetic reminiscent of a Louis Kahn project. Kahn, a Jewish American architect nicknamed the “brick whisperer”, designed Haddow’s favourite brick building, the National Assembly Building in Bangladesh.
“The brickwork on that is just unbelievable,” Haddow says.
Closer to home, he’s also a fan of the 1892 William Kemp-designed Ultimo College, which is today part of the Sydney TAFE campus.
“It’s got an incredible amount of craft and detail across it and there’s joy in the brickwork on that building in Ultimo; it’s really incredibly beautiful,” he says.
Wheeler nominates Frank Gehry’s Dr Chau Chak Wing business school at UTS among brick buildings he admires.
It features “the most extraordinary use” of 320,000 sandstone bricks, each laid by hand to create an undulating form, and references Sydney’s urban brick heritage, a quality Wheeler believes is integral to brick’s enduring appeal.
Architects will often choose brick to complement the built environment in which they’re designing, he says.
“We’re trying to be a part of the context rather than screamingly different,” he says. “We’re trying to add to the urban qualities of [existing buildings].”
Haddow is watching this balance of assimilation and enhancement unfold in Ashbury.
Alongside landscaper 360 Degrees, SJB is on board with Coronation Property’s latest project, Ashbury Terraces. The project offers premium housing near WH Wagener Oval in the inner west, less than 10 kilometres from the CBD. It consists of 59 garden terraces and 74 parkside apartments, including three penthouses.
The choice of brick as a key building material was almost preordained: the oval was once home to a busy brick quarry, which provided the building blocks for the suburb’s many post-war bungalows.
“We selected brick as the hero of the design, a way to link the project with the past and give it a connection to place,” he says. “We wanted to honour the craft of brickwork through beautiful detailing and facades.”
Haddow hopes the development will feel more like a landscape project than a cluster of residential buildings. The brickwork used extensively across the site will represent the “stonescape” one finds in Sydney’s beautiful national parks.
Locals are enthusiastic about the design, and one buyer declared they were “completely taken” by the brick design elements.
“The fact that it’s brickwork and not cement like most of the modern buildings that have been built currently … I like that look,” they said.
Another drawcard is the central garden oasis, which will feature mature palms and flowering shade trees alongside brick planter walls and timber seating around a pool.
“I’m super-excited about it,” says Haddow, whose clear wish is for his latest brick masterpiece to creatively reflect Sydney’s much-loved landscapes.
The final release of Ashbury Terraces is now selling, with homes ready to move in this year. Find out more at ashburyterraces.com.au
