Rest 553Materials of Construction and

Ornament

Mud Brick and Brick

Traditional Building Materials:STONE , TIMBER and BRICK are the traditional

Materials since very early times. In the past, stone

and timber were used for building as they occur in

nature. That is nothing was done to change their

properties except cutting shaping to thr required

sizes and shapes. Whereas brick is the first

material that man has produced. Starting with the

raw materials he has manufactured it according to

his own needs. Throughout history it was possible

to change its properties accoding to current needs,

accoding to geological conditions, according to

current manufactring technologies etc.

Earliest examples in stone:• rock cut architecture• Built-in architecture

Stonehenge, England

• Stonehenge, Neolithic site in England.

• Diameter; 35-40 m., 30 upright blocks, continuous circle of

lintels. Large stone blocks: a kind of limestone; small blocks:

blue stone.

Göbekli Tepe

The stones carry carved reliefs of boars, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions. This is can be referred as a special construction, perhaps for some special meaning,

Earliest examples in timber:• Building with logs, minimum intervention to

shape• Timber constructions• Stone, brick and timber constructions

8 - 5th

century B.C.

Scythian burials

Model of Xiongnu tomb discovered in 1912 at Noin Ula, showing multiple chambers of burial.

Gordion Tomb of Midas: Phrygian, 8th century B.C.

Building in Brick shows a chronological

evolution:• depending on the properties of the

material – CLAY used for manufacture • depending on the purpose of use – how

and where :

POTTERY or BUILDING MATERIAL

Modern bricks

First dwellings: reeds collected from river beds and tied in bundles

First dwellings: reeds plastered with mud coming from river beds

CLAY : Properties of clay used fo the production of functional wares and building materials.

• Primary clays : are those that collect under and around the mother rock. They carry all the properties of this main rock. Their plasticity is poor. Colours vary from white to various tones of grey. Kaolins, ball clays.

• Secondary clays : are those which are carried with rain water to the river beds. In a long time they travel long distances and accumulate in plains, creating the aluvial lands. These are very plastic, the content of iron oxide impruties is high, therefore colours range from apricot to dark red.

• In Neolithic times secondary clays are collected from river beds and begin to be used for :

• - functional ware – pottery for daily use • - bricks for building ; mud brick, sun dried brick.

Building materials made of earth – clay:• Mud brick• Sun dried brick

• Fired brick• Unglazed fired brick

• Glazed brick• Glaze units

1.modelled, hardened by sun.

2. modelled, hardened, fired.

3. modelled, hardened, fired, glazed, fired.

Early use of mud brick • Men began to use bricks at least ca. 8000BC • in the beginning it was found that the most convenient

way of constructing earth walls was by pressing mud or clay into conveniently sized lumps and, after air or sun drying, to lay them in walls, set with mud mortar . These are called rammed clay or pisé.

• These are followed by mud brick or sun-dried brick units. Mud bricks excavated in Jericho, dating from 6000 BC, are cigar shaped, ca. 20-25 x 20-25x 7-8 cm. square , laid more or less in courses.

• Similar mud bricks were excavated in many civilizations of the Middle East. (Bowyer, J)

jericho

Jericho, walls

• This Neolithic watch tower (above and below) was built and destroyed in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic era, in about  8000-7000 B.C.  The 8m diameter tower stands 8m tall and was connected on the inside to a 4m thick wall

Mud BrickThe oldest shaped mud bricks found date back to 7500

B.C. They were found in Çayönü, in the upper Tigris region,and in south east Anatolia close to Diyarbakir. Other more recent findings, dated between 7000 and 6395 B.C., come

from Jericho (Jordan) and Catal Höyük 6500BC.

Anatolia : clay began to be used before 7000 BC

Plano Convex bricks

• By 3000 BC bricks were being made by hand in a mould with a peculiar hog-backed profile.

• Sizes were ca.20-25 x 15-18 x 3.8-6 cm. • Laid in herringbone bond, with horizontalcourses

to even up and stabilize the wall. (Bowyer, J )

Plano Convex bricks

Plano convex bricks

• Ca.2800-2300 BC in Mesopotamia, a type of moulded bricks. Laid in Common bond – two or three courses of bricks on edge leaning on one direction were followed by two courses of bricks laid flat,

• again two or three courses of bricks on edge leaning on the opposite direction

Egyptian wall painting , ca 1500 BC, showing the use of brick moulds. mud was paddled with water and packed down into the moulds. Moulds were then lifted away, leaving the newly formed brick under the full sun to dry.

Brick moulds were in use in Western Anatolia and Crete before 5000 BC. The moulds were probably topless and bottomless wooden boxes with handles for lifting.

Drawing made after an Egyptian wall painting

• Mesopotamia: ca 3500 BC• Brick used for large religious buildings, temples in Tepe

Gawra and Babylon• Babylon: 40 x 40 x 3-4 cm

• Iran:• Persepolis: 32.5 x 32.5 x 12.5 cm

Mesopotamia: written records on cuneiform tablets, information for the use of brick

- I made it fourteen bricks thick, according to my large brick measure....

- two and a half bricks was its thickness, thirty layers its height.......

- according to my large brick measure, I made it ten bricks thick.......

- I strengthened the wall with stone, burnt brick and bitumen.

Catalhoyuk: Neolithic settlements’ house plans

Çatalhöyük

ÇATALHÖYÜK, Neolithic village • Houses and shrines • Walls constructed with mud bricks, timber

beams and timber posts, surface covered with layers of mud mortar. Wall paintings on plaster.

• Mud bricks: • Clay mixed with straw – colour greenish; later

Clay mixed with sand –colour buff• Çatalhöyük: levels II, III, IV, V, VI a & VI b• standard size: 65-67x 37x 8cm ; 32x16x 8 • large size: 95x37x8 ; 62x16x 8-10 ; 72x32x8• other: 32x22x9 ; 40x24x10 ;44-50x31x10

Mud Brick sizes (from Y.Kâhya)

Çatalhöyük

Çatalhöyük

• Çatalhöyük wall painting representing the town and Hasandağ behind

Hacılar, Can Hasan, Suberde

• Hacılar : levels VIII - I, ca.7000-5250 BC Neolithic to early Chalcolithic

• Walls ca 20-30 cm thick, built of single row of bricks ca.72x28x8 , 63x19x10, 46x26x10, also plano convex bricks 50x50x10.

• black mortar, layers of mud plaster, 3-4 cm.thick, outer layer addition of lime, white, fine plaster.

• Can Hasan: 6800-5000 BC• 80X40X10 ; 40x30x10• Suberde: 6800-5000 BC• 60x40x6

Beycesultan, Middle Bronze Ageon stone foundations walls built with mud brick

units, timber tie-beams and timber posts.

Mesopotamia: Fired bricksThe surfaces of the Mud bricks had the

disadvantage of disintegrating due to rain and

frost. With the extensive use of kilns for firing

pottery and furnaces for making metal objects, by

3500 BC experiments were made with the firing of

bricks. Large units were difficult to fire, smaller

units began to be produced. Large scale mud brick

constructions were clad with fired bricks.

Especially on sections where great deal of wear

and tear was expected.

Burnt brick or Fired brick

Mud-brick units were not strong for the

construction of large buildings. Not resistant to

water, they could melt down with rain water.

The method of firing, already known from pottery

production, began to be applied to brick units.

When fired, around 4000 C the water content in the

clay evaporated, at 6000 C the clay lost all the

water content, became harder and the units

shrinked in size. This state is irreversible.

Mesopotamia, Temple at EriduMud brick core, a layer of burnt or fired brick at the

corners etc. jointed and lined with bitumen.

Mesopotamia; Zigurrats

Fired Brick

From archaeological evidence, the invention of fired brick (as opposed to the considerably earlier sun-dried mud brick) is believed to have arisen in about the 3000BC in the Middle East. Being much more resistant to cold and moist weather conditions, brick enabled the construction of permanent buildings in regions where the harsher climate precluded the use of mud bricks.

Mesopotamia: Fired bricks

• The surfaces of the Mud bricks had the disadvantage of disintegrating due to rain and frost. With the extensive use of kilns for firing pottery and furnaces for making metal objects, by 3500 BC experiments were made with the firing of bricks. Large units were difficult to fire, smaller units began to be produced. Large scale mud brick constructions were clad with fired bricks. Especially on sections where great deal of wear and tear was expected.

Burnt brick or Fired brick

• Mud-brick units were not strong for the construction of large buildings. Not resistant to water, they could melt down with rain water.

• The method of firing, already known from pottery production, began to be applied to brick units.

• When fired, around 4000 C the water content in the clay evaporated, at 6000 C the clay lost all the water content, became harder and the units shrinked in size. This state is irreversible.

Mesopotamia, Uruk ( modern Warka )

Warka, protoliterate period 3500-3000BC

• Attempt to disguise the colour and texture of mud bricks. Besides recesses and whitewash, architects experimented with the addition two additional methods: the plastic enrichment of the walls and patterned colouring – cone mosaics

• Polychromy became common towards the end of 2000BC, the art of glazing was practiced on coloured glazed bricks.

cone mosaic

A type of wall decoration used in the Uruk (VI-IV) and Jemdet Nasr periods of southern Mesopotamia. Stone or baked clay cones were stuck into the surface of building facades to produce a colored mosaic geometric pattern. Examples have been found in the Eanna section of Warka.

.

Cone mosaics is a practical architectural solution,aninnovative construction technique, which then takeson its aesthetic and symbolic character. It illustrates the intimate architectonic relation between protection of architectural surfaces and their decoration. Issues of weathering In terms of the protection of mudbrick walls and columns from the environmental effects like wind and rain, humidity, this solution of covering them with baked clay cones was a major breakthrough in terms of the architectonic aesthetics of monumental buildings

Decorative types of cone mosaics

coloured glazed bricks: one of the narrow sides of the bricks was glazed; glazing occurred in pottery production

after 3000 BC, was applied to building bricks.

• The Ishtar Gate at Babylon

Total Height ca.15 m. Width 10 m. Neo-Babylonian 7th–6th Centuries BC by : Nebuchadnezzar II Date of Excavation: 1899-1914 Reconstruction

• Staatliche Museen , Berlin Dept. of the Near East

GREEK and ROMAN

• Marcus Vitruvius Polio, • The Ten Books on Architecture, Book II,

Chapter III • Bricks:

Marcus Vitruvius Polio, The Ten Books on Architecture, Book II, Chapter III

• 1. I shall first treat of bricks, and the earth of which they ought to be made. Gravelly, pebbly, and sandy clays are unfit for that purpose; for if made of either of these sorts of earth, they are not only too ponderous, but walls built of them, when exposed to the rain, moulder away, and are soon decomposed, and the straw, also, with which they are mixed, will not sufficiently bind the earth together, because of its rough quality. They should be made of earth of a red or white chalky, or a strong sandy nature. These sorts of earth are ductile and cohesive, and not being heavy, bricks made of them are more easily handled in carrying up the work.

• 2. The proper seasons for brick-making are the spring and autumn, because they then dry more equably. Those made in the summer solstice are defective, because the heat of the sun soon imparts to their external surfaces an appearance of sufficient dryness, whilst the internal parts of them are in a very different state; hence, when thoroughly dry, they shrink and break those parts which were dry in the first instance; and thus broken, their strength is gone. Those are best that have been made at least two years; for in a period less than that they will not dry thoroughly. When plastering is laid and set hard on bricks which are not perfectly dry, the bricks, which will naturally shrink, and consequently occupy a less space than the plastering, will thus leave the latter to stand of itself. From its being extremely thin, and not capable of supporting itself, it soon breaks into pieces; and in its failure sometimes involves even that of the wall. It is not, therefore, without reason that the inhabitants of Utica allow no bricks to be used in their buildings which are not at least five years old, and also approved by a magistrate.

• There are three sorts of bricks; the first is that which the Greeks call Didoron (διδῶρον), being the sort we use; that is, •one foot long, and half a foot wide. The two other sorts are used in Grecian buildings; one is called Pentadoron, the other Tetradoron. By the word Doron the Greeks mean a •palm, because the word δῶρον signifies a gift which can be borne in the palm of the hand. That sort, therefore, which is •five palms each way is called Pentadoron; that of •four palms, Tetradoron. The former of these two sorts is used in public buildings, the latter in private.

• Each sort has half bricks made to suit it; so that when a wall is executed, the course on one of the faces of the wall shews sides of whole bricks, the other face of half bricks; and being worked to the line on each face, the bricks on each bed bond alternately over the course below. Besides the pleasant varied appearance which this method gives, it affords additional strength, by the middle of a brick, on a rising course, falling over the vertical joints of the course thereunder. The bricks of Calentum in Spain, Marseilles in France, and Pitane in Asia, are, when wrought and dried, specifically lighter than water, and hence swim thereon. This must arise from the porosity of the earth whereof they are made; the air contained in the pores, to which the water cannot penetrate, giving them a buoyant property. Earth of this sort being, therefore, of such a light and thin quality, and impervious to water, be a lump thereof of whatever size, it swims naturally like pumice-stone. Bricks of this sort are of great use for building purposes; for they are neither heavy nor liable to be injured by the rain.

Modern Terminology• Stretcher

– Brick (or other masonry block) laid horizontally in the wall with the long, narrow side of the brick exposed. Commonly used for English bond and

Flemish bond pattern, alternating with header bricks. • Header

– Brick is laid in a wall, usually connecting two rows of a double wythe wall. The smallest end of the brick is horizontal, aligned with the surface of the wall and exposed to the weather.

• Soldier – Often a complete course of brick laid on end vertically, with the narrow

side exposed in the face of the wall. – A "standing soldier" is the most common way of setting the soldier brick

on end that is flush with the wall. A "walking soldier" is a soldier course laid so the bottom edge of the brick is sticking out to about an inch. Usually alternating every other brick with a standing soldier, but other variations have been seen.

• Rowlock or 'Brick on edge'(UK) – A complete course of brick laid on its side, with the shortest end of

the brick exposed and vertical. Commomly used on the top course as a coping for garden walls.

• Sailor – Brick laid vertically on its end with the largest, broad face exposed.

• Shiner – Brick laid on edge like a sailor, but the broad face is set horizontally.

• Quoin, "coin" – (or "coin" - are groups of brick that project slightly from the face of a

wall at the corner of a building. The pattern often alternates with several courses projecting bricks, and several courses that are aligned with the wall. The pattern of projecting quions often alternates with the brickwork on the other side of the corner.

Modern Terminology• Stretcher

– Brick (or other masonry block) laid horizontally in the wall with the long, narrow side of the brick exposed. Commonly used for English bond and Flemish bond pattern, alternating with header bricks.

• Header – Brick is laid in a wall, usually connecting two rows of a double wythe wall. The smallest end of the brick is

horizontal, aligned with the surface of the wall and exposed to the weather.

• Soldier – Often a complete course of brick laid on end vertically, with the narrow side exposed in the face of the wall. – A "standing soldier" is the most common way of setting the soldier brick on end that is flush with the wall. A

"walking soldier" is a soldier course laid so the bottom edge of the brick is sticking out to about an inch. Usually alternating every other brick with a standing soldier, but other variations have been seen.

• Rowlock or 'Brick on edge'(UK) – A complete course of brick laid on its side, with the shortest end of the brick exposed and vertical.

Commomly used on the top course as a coping for garden walls.

• Sailor – Brick laid vertically on its end with the largest, broad face exposed.

• Shiner – Brick laid on edge like a sailor, but the broad face is set horizontally.

• Quoin, "coin" – (or "coin" - are groups of brick that project slightly from the face of a wall at the corner of a building. The

pattern often alternates with several courses projecting bricks, and several courses that are aligned with the wall. The pattern of projecting quions often alternates with the brickwork on the other side of the corner.

Stretcher brick

header brick

Soldier brick

Quoin brick