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buildings with the material some may have once dubbed ‘boring old brick.’ Facades varying in colour, texture and incorporating complex patterns and designs, are now de rigeur for architects with a penchant for masonry’s evergreen appeal.
Keeping pace with regulatory changes has been crucial to masonry support facilitating the rise in brick’s popularity. For example, the ban on combustible materials for buildings over 18 metres has led to innovations in brick on soffit systems to enable their use in high-rise applications. A BBA-Certified Brick on Soffit System (B.O.S.S.) is available that’s developed to be a non-combustible specification solution for architects wanting to add depth and contemporary visual flair to a masonry facade. The system is a gift for creating stunning brick soffits, deep reveals and flying beams with a wide range of bond patterns.
Such prefabricated solutions, whereby brick slips are adhesively bonded and mechanically fixed to a cement particle board, have significantly reduced the time and effort it takes to deliver buildings that are exciting to the eye. Lighter than equivalent concrete units, support systems of this type can result in a smarter, faster installation process that negates the need for mechanical lifting. Masonry support’s progression is helping reframe brick in the hearts and minds of architects. In doing so, it is aiding the creation of a more characterful environment, and one that is increasingly leaning on brick’s timeless qualities
ADF JANUARY 2024
to produce projects that are a perfect commemoration of modern and traditional building styles. Such applications are reasserting brick as a classic building material; classics never go out of style.
Case study: easyHotel, Oxford IG Masonry Support supplied a full layout of custom brick slip systems, lintels and ancillary masonry support for the redevelopment of an easyHotel in Oxford. The products were not only crucial as a means of structural support, they were integral to achieving the architect’s distinctive design for the refurbished building, which featured striking brick bond patterns and bay-type windows. Selected by Brickwork Contractor, Acheson Construction, we supplied the support system enclosures and ancillary masonry products were supplied for this project. Each solution was prefabricated, thus ensuring their suitability for the building design’s most challenging aspect – an unusual corbelled outset pattern that needed to have an amount of variation. The design services provided for this project not only ensured that the masonry support blended seamlessly with other suppliers’ products, but that the systems were delivered ready-made to simplify and speed up the installation process. Lastly, the client saved costs by eliminating the need for masonry support at specific levels of the building.
Andy Sharlot is chief designer at IG Masonry Support
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The development of masonry support has propelled brick to a new stratosphere in terms of design possibility
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