The Digital Bricks

Melbourne, Australia

2021

For centuries, clay bricks have shaped the appearance, feeling and expression of the built environment. Inspired by this traditional building material, The Digital Bricks fuses technology and architecture with First Nations Australians’ culture. Polished, translucent glass bricks and high-definition screen technology interlace with clay brickwork to manifest the concept ‘if these walls could talk’ and share stories of scientific innovation, First Australians’ knowledge, and art programs through the touch responsive media facade.

Melbourne Connect, the newly built innovation precinct at The University of Melbourne, celebrates traditional material by intertwining its physical and tactile strengths with the opportunities afforded by today’s digital and interactive technologies. Science Gallery Melbourne sits at the gateway to this precinct, with The Digital Bricks a perfect platform to share stories from its rich history. The debut content program consists of The Digital Birthing Tree, a First Australians-led program that displays gradual transitions from pre-colonial knowledge to Western colonisation and occupation of Traditional Lands. The story provides an opportunity to honour First Australian Women’s contributions to the health system.

The Digital Bricks incorporates interlaced placement of 226 polished translucent glass bricks within the building’s clay brick ground floor structure. Each glass brick sits in front of a small, high-brightness and high-resolution LED screen. This transparent mosaic of so-called ‘digital bricks’ are placed strategically by way of a parametric model that feathers glass bricks with clay bricks to ensure optimal visibility.

The technology behind The Digital Bricks results from design research by the Science Gallery Melbourne and the School of Computing and Information Systems, in partnership with Melbourne Connect. At 208 physical megapixels it was the world’s highest resolution interactive video screen at the time it was built. The project’s complexity necessitated significant innovations and developments across all disciplines. For example, facade engineers and building teams had to invent new ways to bond clay and glass bricks and reliable methods to embed the screens in wall cavities.

Project Credits

Science Gallery Melbourne

Arup

The University of Melbourne

Melbourne Connect

Woods Bagot

Byrne Construction Systems

AVIT Integration

REELIZE.STUDIO

Light-Ctrl

Lendlease

Media Credits

Peter Casamento (1)

Toby Welch (3, 4)

Niels Wouters (2, 5, 6)