Most brick contain cores — holes in the interior of the brick units that became commonplace when manufacturers embraced extruding rather than molding brick. Cores reduce the mass of the brick and make production, shipping, and installation more efficient, generally without diminishment of brick’s many beneficial physical properties.

“Ah,” you say, “so brick with cores are hollow brick.” If only it were that easy. Even “solid brick”, by industry standards, usually contain cores, leaving one to wonder what on earth is meant by “hollow brick.” What it really comes down to is the degree of hollow-ness.

Brick and glass aren’t always thought of as perfect partners. After all, brick has been around for thousands of years and is a frequent staple in traditional designs, while glass-walled structures are relatively young in comparison and tend to be associated with contemporary architecture. But designers at Perkins Eastman extracted the maximum benefit — and style — available from both materials in creating the Center for Advanced Medicine and Surgery.

We’ve highlighted winners of the 2020 Brick in Architecture awards in this blog before, but those projects only represented brick manufacturers from the Brick Industry Association’s Heartland Region. And, we didn’t have the space to do a full write-up about those designs and all of the thought and creativity that went into them.

Luckily for you, the Brick Industry Association (BIA) has assembled full descriptions of the winners of each category into a downloadable PDF document. This beautiful publication includes many photos, as well as insights into the designers’ objectives for each fired clay brick structure.

Steel lintels are frequently used in today’s brick masonry construction. They provide the “shelf” upon which the veneer of brick is stacked up when it’s impractical to provide other forms of load bearing support. Lintels might be used for brick cladding on upper stories of tall buildings for example, or they might be applied where several facade materials are in use and the brick portions don’t begin at the foundation. Lintels are also commonly applied above window and door openings in the wall. They are extremely useful, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are attractive.

Enter lipped brick — specially-shaped brick units with recesses cut into them to accommodate the lintel, leaving a lipped edge to cover the steel.

To paint or not to paint? It’s a tough question. On one hand, fired clay brick is a supremely durable building material either painted or not painted, so as a designer you really can’t go wrong. On the other hand, why turn one of the world’s lowest maintenance facade systems into something that needs regular maintenance over time in the form of repainting?

You’ll have to make that decision on your own, but you should do it without being influenced by several myths about the painting of brick masonry.

After years of planning, design, and construction, your vision in fired clay brick is finally complete. The finished structure now stands proudly for the world to see. It turned out exactly as you hoped it would — better, even. You are overjoyed, giddy — positively effervescent with enthusiasm for your creation.

Then a few months later, a white, powdery substance starts creeping across your carefully designed facade. It looks like your building is chalked up for the Olympic power lifting competition. It is not attractive, and the rest of the world can see it. You are deflated.

What’s going on here? Efflorescence, unfortunately, has reared its ugly head.