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In our ongoing content partnership with Brickworks, we’ve been exploring the beauty, versatility and possibilities of Bricks in its many applications, from art, design, interiors and architecture via some of the most radical projects and ideas both in Australia and overseas.

Today’s article brings us to individual homes. Yeah, I hear you – Brick Houses are hardly a radical concept. This is, after all, where we expect to see Bricks used the most. Hold your horses, dear friends – this is Yellowtrace, after all, and we’re going to be visiting 18 Knockout Brick Houses that leave a lasting impression, broken up by various brick styles and colours.

Our journey starts at the beginning, with the humble Red Brick. Oh, I can just feel some of you shiver as you read this. Poor Red Brick got a hammering in post-war years throughout Australian suburbia. Some of us are yet to recover from the dreaded visual of driving down the street and seeing house after house, one apartment block after another sporting lairy red-brick box-forms, basic pitched roofs with minimal overhang, shitty aluminium windows and doors, and all that jazz. Well, this is not where we’re headed today because Red Bricks have come a long way since those days. Hallelujah!

Apart from RBs, we’ll be checking out Masonry, Glass Block, Brown & Grey Brick, and White Brick Houses too, ranging in budget, scope and scale. It turns out the possibilities and the design potential of Bricks is infinite even in residential homes. But you probably knew that already. Let’s get amongst it.

Related:
Bricks Decoded: The Return of Glass Blocks.
Bricks Decoded: Bangin’ Brick Retail Interiors.
Bricks Decoded: High-rise Brick & Masonry Architecture.

RED BRICK HOUSES.

Rabbit Hole House in Gaasbeek, Belgium by Lens°Ass Architecten. Photography by Philippe van Gelooven.

Lens°Ass Architecten’s Rabbit Hole House is the poster girl for Red Brick Houses. If this project doesn’t make you reconsider the potential for the RB, I’m not really sure we should be friends.

Located in rural Belgian town Gaasbeek, this project displays a monolithic use of brick that unifies a series of buildings from floor to roof. The renovation of a dilapidated brick farmhouse into a home and a veterinary practice responds to the contemporary residential needs without destroying the rural character of the existing structure. A brick-lined funnel, dubbed Rabbit Hole, is an annex that connects the two buildings. “Brick is used here not only as a construction material but also as a concept reinforcing the existing structure. It is the binding element between the past and the present,” said Bart Lens.

So good. Although completed some 10 years ago now, this project remains one of my personal favourite brick buildings, if you must know.

Highgate House in London by Carmody Groarke. Photography by Hélène Binet.

For this London family home near Highgate Wood, Carmody Groarke used brick as a sculptural, structural, and contextual device. Although mostly abstract in its use (covering all surfaces inside and out), the bold red brick also connects with the traditional craft embedded in the eclectic architecture of the neighbourhood. The three commanding brick volumes are at once new and old—making up a modern, minimalist home, that’s still rooted in its landscape and local history and in English suburbia.

Find out more about Carmody Groarke’s architectural approach in our article on Kevin Carmody’s Territory of Architecture lecture series in Australia.

Sierra Fría House in Mexico City by Esrawe Studio. Photos by César Béjar.

From the outside, Esrawe Studio’s Casa Sierra Fría in Mexico City seems impenetrable and solid. Its monolithic brick form not exactly welcoming outsiders with open arms. However, upon entering, spaces unfold with a softer tone. Continuously flowing, light-filled rooms creating an introspective oasis for family life within its red brick walls.

The two large volumes wrap themselves around a central courtyard – the green heart of the home. Plants cover the ground, climb up walls and reach for the sky. All of a sudden, occupants are thrust into a different world – the buzz of contemporary life dulled by the soft rustling of leaves.

Explore more of this project here.

Merri Creek House in Melbourne by WOWOWA. Photography by Shannon McGrath.

WOWOWA’s Merri Creek House tagline is “Making the familiar strange & the strange familiar”. Located in the tree-lined street in Melbourne’s Fitzroy North, sprinkled with, as told by the architects “cream & apricot double story triple brick veneer – many with deco waterfall edges and glamorous garages with roof decks above that connect to contribute to a grand entry sequence.” Keen to respond to the “contextual romance”, Merri Creek House presents with its own street-facing deck above the garage.

Celebrating the waterfall features of neighbouring homes, two circular towers cascade along the site as a fresh take on the neighbourhood vernacular. Built by Atma Builders, Merri Creek House features two different types of bricks – Daniel Robertson Traditional in ‘Buff’ externally, and Austral Brick’s Allure in ‘Ariana’ used in the interior.

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