Track 2, Presentation 1
One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure: The Transition of Clinker Bricks from Disposable to Decorative
Alafia Akhtar
Project Manager, Consulting Associates of New York (CANY)
Seeking uniformity and consistency in their products, early brick manufactures would toss out “clinker” brick. Clinker brick was described by the 20th century geologist, Henrich Reis, as brick with rough, 1 distorted and discolored surfaces. The formation of these distorted brick was often due to being located near “hot zones” in scove, downdraft and beehive kilns. As a result, clinker brick was burned to a greater temperature, creating a harder, deformed, and unpredictably colored material; making them worthless for early brick makers.
Historically clinker brick were categorized as a type of common brick because of their surface imperfections and low cost. Due to the “defective” nature of the brick, they were sold for nonstructural purposes such as serving as artificial rock work within garden walls or more importantly as grog within brick production. However, in the early 20th century, as manufacturing of brick was mechanized and brick sizes and shapes became consistent, an aesthetic shift occurred against the uniformity established within the industry. Architects began searching for a hand-made, natural material that would allow for the creation of unique buildings. Clinker brick served as the perfect material, as their distorted, explosive appearance was a result of natural firing. The material’s appeal was poetically described in a 1927 edition of Garden and Home Builder as “These warped, broken discards have become the aristocrats of all brick. And why? Because they are the product of the fire, of that purgatory which burns out the base qualities yet refines and ennobles, but in passing it leaves its mark. These brick remind one of the wrinkled visage of age wherein recorded much suffering. These brick are not pretty-they are beautiful, and in that deep true sense of beauty as appreciated by the artist. They have character; they tell a story— the story of fire. As there is more genuine beauty in the wrinkled visage of age than in the pretty symmetry of youth, so also do these warped and twisted brick surpass their precise neighbors.”2
As clinker brick became more popular, the production of the material transitioned from accidental to manufactured, brick makers relied on stationary kilns (named to reflect the fact that brick remained in one position during the entire burning cycle) to aid in the process. Colors of the clinker brick were as unpredictable as their physical features and dependent on the levels of heat and oxygen exposures during firing. As temperatures rose higher in the kilns, iron oxides 3 within the clay underwent varying reactions causing drastic color variations from brick to brick. Therefore, 4 which resulted in higher prices for clinkers, often exceeding the cost of average common brick.5
The initial architectural employment of clinker bricks was popularized by the philosophies of the Arts and Crafts Movement which promoted the use of natural, local materials in order to create structures that blended seamlessly into the natural environment. Architects liberally utilized the material within garden walls, chimneys, fireplaces, foundations and facades. Eventually, even as the Arts and Crafts Movement declined, the use of the trendy clinker brick continued to be utilized during the Tudor Revival period in architecture. It was a style that romanticized the Elizabethan era, stressing roughness, variation, and irregularity within architecture. The Tudor Revival Style was heavily used within apartment building architecture in cities such as New York, to impart character on a building type that became repetitive. The use of clinker brick was ideal, as the highly varied and unpredictable texture of the material created an individualized visual kaleidoscope on the surface of the building. In addition to the use of the clinker brick, its installation was also key in enhance its character. This was achieved by installing the brick between wide mortar joints and the utilization of the unique form of installation called skintling. The term “skintled brickwork” was a form in which brick was laid rapidly in varied angles on the wall creating a visually unique surface.
The transition of clinker brick from disposable to manufactured was a product of many aesthetic shifts within architecture and the brick industry as a whole. At a time when brick manufacturing became more mechanized and uniform, misshapen clinkers were considered trash and passable for the use in grog. However, as architectural movements emphasizing the use of handmade and natural materials gained momentum, the demand of clinker brick’s physical qualities such as the naturally produced shapes, colors and sizes gained popularity. The material ironically transitioned from being unpredictably produced, a quality that first attracted the brick type to builders to being mass produced and mechanized.
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1 Charles Thomas Davis. Practical Treatise on the Manufacture of Brick, Tiles, and Terra-Cotta. Philadelphia: H.C. Baird and Company, 1895. 330.; Heinrich Ries. Stones and Clay Products. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1912. 283.
2 J. Duncan Hunter. “Brick as a Fireproof Material.” Garden and Home Builder, January 1927, 386-387.
3 James L. Garvin. “Small-Scale Brickmaking In New Hampshire.” The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology. 20. no. 1/2 IA IN NEW HAMPSHIRE (1994): 26.
4 Justin Boggs, Nicole Cooper, and Debra F. Laefer, “Engineering Properties of Historic Brick: Variability Considerations as a Function of Stationary Versus Non-Stationary Kiln Types.” Journal of the American Institute of Conservation. 43. no. 3 (2004): 260.
5 Warren Griffiss. “Beauty of Common Brick.” Brick and Clay Record. 56. No. June 1 (1920). 1097.
Alafia Akhtar is a project manager at Consulting Associates of New York (CANY) where she works on restoration projects throughout New York City. Her work spans from investigation via Industrial Rope Access (IRA) to overseeing the repair of many of New York City’s buildings. Prior to CANY, she worked for an architectural conservation firm for a number of years working on both small and large scale material conservation projects. Alafia has a Bachelor’s degree in Art History and Criticism from Stony Brook University and a Masters in Historic Preservation from Columbia University.
