Mr.Building Material

-The Romans

                                               

·         further distinguished those which had been dried by the sun and air and those bricks which were burnt in a kiln.

·         Preferring to make their bricks in the spring, the Romans held on to their bricks for 2 years before they were used or sold. They only used clay which was whitish or red for their bricks. 

·         Successful in introducing kiln fired bricks to the whole of the Roman Empire. The bricks were then stamped with the mark of the legion who supervised the brick production. These bricks differed from other ancient bricks in size and shape like round, square, oblong, triangular or rectangular. The kiln fired bricks were generally 1 or 2 Roman foot by 1 Roman foot and some also larger bricks at up to 3 Roman feet.

·         Preferred this type of brick making in their civilization and used the bricks for public and private buildings all over the empire.

- Northern Germany from northern Italy

      

·         Reintroduced during the 12th century bricks

·         The buildings around this time were mainly built from fired red clay bricks.

·         Brick Gothic style buildings can be found in the Baltic countries Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Germany, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and Russia.

·         The brick gothic period can be categorized by the lack of figural architectural sculptures which had previously been carved in stone. The Gothic figures were impossible to create out of bulky bricks at that time, but could be identified by the use of split courses of bricks in varying colours, red bricks, glazed bricks and white lime plaster.

·         During the renaissance and Baroque periods, exposed brick walls became unpopular and brickwork was generally covered by plaster. Only during the mid 18th century did visible brick walls again regain some popularity.