Brick

Piazza del Campo, Siena, Italy. **What do you know about brick?**

**What are they made of?**
Bricks may be made from clay, shale, soft slate, calcium silicate, concrete or shaped quarried stone. Clay is the most common material

Brick is a material used for building and pavement.
 * What are they used for?**

**How many types of brick are there?**
** __COMMON brick__ **is made of ordinary clays or shales and burned in the usual manner in the kilns. These bricks do not have special scorings or markings and are not produced in any special color or surface texture. It is used generally for backing courses in solid or cavity brick walls. The harder and more durable kinds are preferred for this purpose.

** __FACE bricks__ **are used in the exposed face of a wall and are higher quality units than backup brick. They have better durability and appearance. The most common colors of face brick are various shades of brown, red, gray, yellow, and white.
 * __CLINKER bricks__ **are bricks that have been overburned in the kilns. This type of brick is usually hard and durable and may be irregular shape.
 * __PRESS bricks__ **are made by the dry press process. This class of brick has regular smooth faces, sharp edges, and perfectly square corners. Ordinarily, all press brick are used as face brick.


 * __GLAZED bricks__ **have one surface of each brick glazed in white or other colors. This type of brick is particularly suited for walls or partitions in hospitals, dairies, laboratories, or other buildings where cleanliness and ease of cleaning are necessary.
 * __FIREBRICK__ **is made of a special type of fire clay that will withstand the high temperatures of fireplaces, boilers, and similar usages without cracking or decomposing. Firebrick is larger than regular structural brick, and often, it is hand molded.
 * __CORED BRICK__ **are made with two rows of five holes extending through their beds to reduce weight. There is no significant difference between the strength of walls constructed with cored brick and those constructed with solid brick. Resistance to moisture penetration is about the same for both types of walls.
 * __SAND-LIME bricks__ **are made from a lean mixture of slaked lime and fine silicious sand, molded under mechanical pressure and hardened under steam pressure.

**What is the meaning of brick laying techniques?**
Typically it involves hands on bricklaying like measuring the work area following the architect's plans, mixing mortar by hand or with a mechanical mixer, laying the bricks and applying the mortar, shaping and trimming bricks using bricklaying tools and checking that the brick wall is straight.

**Describe 2 brick laying techniques**

 * The running bond is the simplest of the six patterns, consisting of all stretchers. Because the bond has no headers, metal ties usually form the structural bond. The running bond is used largely in cavity wall construction, brick veneer walls, and facing tile walls made with extra wide stretcher tile.


 * The common, or American, bond is a variation of the running bond, having a course of full-length headers at regular intervals that provide the structural bond as well as the pattern. Header courses usually appear at every fifth, sixth, or seventh course, depending on the structural bonding requirements.

**What are their advantages and disadvantages?**
Brick can increase the thermal mass of a building, giving increased comfort in the heat of summer or the cold; brick typically will not require painting and so can provide a structure with reduced life-cycle costs, also is a material very resistent, resists fire, hurricanes, projectiles, etc. Also can impart an impression of solidity and permanence in the building. However, brick also has its disadvantages, in extreme weather causes degradation of the material depending on the type of brick and must be built upon a strong foundation to avoid settling and cracking.

**Expressions with brick.**


 * Drop a brick.** Say something indiscreet, commit a social gaffe. For example, John dropped a brick when he called her by his ex-wife's name.


 * Come down on somebody like a ton of bricks.** to punish someone very quickly and severely. For example, If you miss any more classes, your teachers will be down on you like a ton of bricks.
 * Be /come up against a brick wall.** to not be able to continue an activity or do something you want to do I've tried everywhere I can think of for funding but I've come up against a brick wall. My brother wants to leave home but he can't find a job. He's up against a brick wall.


 * Brick & mortar.** buildings; the expenditure of money on buildings rather than something else. (The buildings referred to can be constructed out of anything.) The new president of the college preferred to invest in new faculty members rather than bricks and mortar.


 * Brick upon brick**

Reading: BRICK
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 I believe that in tropical countries such as Venezuela is important to choosing a good material for building. This material should to provide high thermal mass to the building to protect from high temperatures and increase the comfort level.
 * "What construction material would you use to build your own house? Why? **

Brick is an ideal material for this case; it is widely used in our country for many reasons. The main is by to be a material resistant to weather, fire, heat, etc. also is easily accessible and only requires of the mortar.

Finally, I would use brick to build my house because it is the most beneficial material for a tropical climate like this one, not to mention that it looks very attractive.

** Use given to brick in Piazza del Campo, Siena. ** The paving work in Piazza del Campo, using exceptional featured red bricks, started in 1327 and ended twenty years after. The brick paving is divided into nine sections delimited by white stones representing the “Governo dei Nove”





Brick play an important role in this spectacular place because the covers almost in its whole. In the Piazza del Campo was used a special technique of masonry that is known as "herringbone bond", in which the rows of headers are laid at right angles to each other so as to form, in plan, a series of zigzags, creating a herringbone pattern (as shown in figure), with the end of each brick butting against the side of the adjoining brick;a form of raking bond.

Finally, I consider that the use of brick in this space gives it a monumental character, not only to the square but also all its around. It is interesting the technique used to generate a continuous effect on the square, creating a wonderful space of enjoyment and reunion.