Vision Bricks - architectural facades that engage and uplift.

Vision Bricks - architectural facades that engage and uplift.

 

At this year’s Surface Design Show, Ketley Brick will be showcasing its new award-winning Vision Bricks, which enable architects to push the boundaries of design with more ambitious and complex brickwork facades that provide visual interest to engage, inspire and uplift.

The Vision Bricks brand presents the architectural potential of clay brick shapes and sizes, with an array of angular, sharp-edged, or gently tactile and curved profiles, which can be combined to create unique features.

The virtually limitless possibilities of bespoke relief patterns and textures incorporated into the surface of bricks, brick slips, pavers and quarry tiles enable the design of bold and adventurous wall and floor designs and can also add interest and individuality to landscaping features.

 

The latest development under the ‘Vision Bricks’ brand is the Brixel Brick system, which as recent winner of the innovation categories of the Facades Awards UK and the Brick Development Association’s Brick Awards, is a completely new way of creating complex patterns, images, or logos in clay brickwork without the need for bespoke bricks.

Images are pixelated and converted into a two tone, textured brickwork design through five types of physical clay Brixel bricks, each with different combinations of pyramidal protrusions and flat sections.  The Brixel digital tool enables the creation of an accurate 3D representation, which is used to calculate the precise quantity and placement of each Brixel brick type and to ensure that the final brick facade is viable and true to the architect’s design vision.

 

“In developing our Vision Bricks brand, we were constantly mindful of the aesthetic, tactile and sensory potential of clay brick, its possibilities within modern architecture and how it can contribute to the structure of our built environment. 

“As Thomas Heatherwick has highlighted in his book “Humanise: A Maker’s Guide to Building Our World” when buildings are too plain, they are boring!  So, there is real benefit in adding ornamentation, and interesting brick designs offer a relatively simple means to achieve this, in a way that positively shapes our mood and sense of well-being,” said Alex Patrick-Smith, Chairman of Ketley Brick.

“We use the latest digital technology to present bespoke possibilities, whilst working closely with architects to re-imagine the potential of what is one of the world’s oldest and most natural building materials and how it can positively engage with and influence our communities.”

Made from the finest Etruria Marl clay, Ketley’s clay Vision Bricks are a long-lasting natural, sustainable, and VOC free architectural solution, fired in Staffordshire clays colours without the use of artificial stains or pigments.

 

With their ‘Class A’ engineering brick strength and durability and F2 standard frost resistance, they are suitable for most applications including high level and exposed architectural façades where projecting or textured brickwork needs to withstand severe weather conditions. Ketley Quarry tiles also achieve the highest ratings under BS 7976-2 for slip resistance.

With over 200 years of experience of manufacturing British architectural clay products from its factory in Dudley, West Midlands, Ketley Brick offers a special brick consultancy service dedicated to delivering solutions designed to create positive and enduring design statements.

           

For more information about Ketley’s Vision Bricks call telephone: 01384 78361. Fax: 01384 74553. Email: sales@ketley-brick.co.uk or visit: www.ketley-brick.co.uk