FIVE DESIGN IDEAS FOR USING BRICK CREATIVELY
As more architects and designers embrace the innate durability and aesthetic flexibility of bricks, homes are coming alive with brick detailing.
Brick is back, creating impactful architectural features inside and out. Using PGH Bricks & Pavers range, the broadest on Australia's East Coast, the industry is embracing varied textures, shapes, colours and finishes to inject life into residential design.
Interior feature walls add texture and visual interest for entrances and bespoke interior spaces. Bricks can create any look from crisp and contemporary monochromatic or glassy finishes using glazed bricks, to industrial and warehouse inspired interiors with dry pressed bricks.
Interior design consultancy Designing Divas has used PGH Lagoon bricks from the Seascape Collection to create a vibrant splashback that enlivens an industrial kitchen.
See also: Teneriffe Warehouse Apartments
Create a recycled look by blending bricks with different textures and colours. Complement with timber joinery and flooring for a truly rustic style. Queensland architecture firm, Vokes and Peters, worked with PGH to develop a blend of five different bricks for a textural and tactile surface for their West End Cottage.
Maintain privacy without sacrificing design with a brick screen using hit and miss brickwork. Pierced brick walls allow light and air to easily flow through the building, connecting interior living spaces with the outside world while protecting the home from prying eyes.
Architect James Russell incorporated PGH Smooth bricks laid in a perforated brick bond pattern to create a climate-appropriate design for his Ascot House project.
See also: The Rowlock Development
Go against the grain with wire cut bricks. Exposing the inside of a brick on exterior walls adds contrast and character, as well as creating jagged edges to protect walls exposed to general public areas from the rigours of urban living, such as graffiti.
Victorian architects KUD created a jagged side exterior wall to deter vandals and passers-by using wire-cut PGH Smooth bricks in a range of colours for its Hancock House project.
Demonstrate artistic flair by incorporating corbelling. Alternating brick laying directions, brick size and depth can all contribute to unique designs that change the style of exterior walls as the sun moves – or make a statement indoors by embracing favourite colours or shapes.