From the editors
50 SHADES OF CLAY Words and images Jonas Althuis
You don't have to look far to find a brick building in the Netherlands, they're almost everywhere. For centuries, the brick has been a constant; governments have risen and fallen, crises have collapsed the economy, society has changed, but bricks remain. The use of brick is one of the reasons that there are so many century-old historic city centres in the Netherlands; bricks are robust. They don't rot, they're not flammable, they barely weaken over time. So how did bricks come to dominate the built environment of the Netherlands? Where do they get their diverse red, brown and yellow tones from? And what does the future of bricks look like?
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Brick buildings are so ubiquitous in the Netherlands, that they've become easy to miss; they blend into the built environment of this country like camouflage. This makes it easy to write off bricks as a boring or generic material, something I've caught myself doing throughout my design projects. "What a plain material", I would think, choosing instead for newer and more technologically advanced alternatives. In an effort to change my stubborn thinking, and perhaps atone for my ignorance, I've decided to re-discover bricks; exploring their history, how they're made, and why they're so commonplace in the Netherlands. In search of answers, I spoke with Koen Mulder; a teacher at the faculty that is specialised in building-technology. Regarding his qualifications, Koen's faculty nickname says enough, it's 'Mr. Brick'. It's from him that most of my new-found knowledge about bricks comes from. The history of bricks Baking clay is something humankind has been doing for thousands of years to produce things. From pots, jugs or cups, to figurines and statues, to roof tiles, and of course, bricks. In the middle ages, bricks were made where clay was readily available; typically close to where a building would be built, so that transport distance was minimal. In the 16th century and onwards, brick production became more structured and was clustered around the Dutch rivers that contain the most clay; the IJssel, the Waal and the Rijn. The central area of the Netherlands therefore became the most important brick production hub of the country; bricks produced here were even exported to neighbouring countries. Throughout the centuries, the brick industry continued to grow; in the period of 1850 to 1965, more than 107 billion bricks were produced in the Netherlands. The majority of these are still in a building somewhere today.
