Creative Masonry Design: Interspersing Brick and Block
A few months back, while traveling, we saw an interesting masonry building assembly that caught our attention because it’s relatively simple, and made from relatively typical, basically ubiquitous, types of construction materials, yet it looks a little better than the typical low-cost construction details found in most modern building facades. Three different images of the same architectural area are shown below, one from a wide angle, the next up close and the third looking straight at the facade. This is an access stair to an institutional building. The construction also includes a modified layout to the rear of the building, build years ago, but many years after the original construction of the main building.
When you look at the building, even from a distance, you can see that there are distinct ribbons or bands set into the blockwork, where brick courses were used in lieu of the regular CMU concrete blocks. From an individual capacity, the brickwork has almost an equivalent structural capacity.
There are differences though from a structural perspective, for example, concrete blocks can normally be vertically restrained or supported with reinforcement bars set through the middle of the hollow block. 
When the hollow block has rebar installed vertically, and then the cores or interior cells of the block are filled with concrete, the lateral resistance of the block partition becomes extremely strong. Brick can also have supplemental elements added for structural resistance, but it doesn’t have an intrinsic hollow core that allows it to be integrally connected in a vertical configuration. Here though, these particular brick ribbons or bands do not detract from the overall structural capacity of the wall and were building assembly and add a unique architectural detail.
The designers have also chosen to have a few anomalies. Block, when installed in a typical uniform fashion, can look very monotonous and boring. Here, though where it didn’t detract from the physical strength of the building, they have chosen to recess a few blocks, scattered throughout the facade just to add another unique architectural detail. While some blocks are slightly recessed, others protrude or stand proud of the remainder of the facade. This variation adds a unique aesthetic variation.
The next picture below shows the bands towards the base of the wall, here the brick bands are as tall as four courses, at the thickest or tallest of all of the bands. They’ve added the largest and closest concentration of the brick bands towards the bottom of the building, likely not just because it’s closer to pedestrian eye level, but also from a distance, it gives more weight and gravity to those bands as they balance across the vertical facade.
The next picture shows the brick bands as they are set between the CMU courses of block. These bricks jut out beyond the planar face of the block work which also adds another degree of variation in the configuration across the facade. The human eye will naturally pick up on these details, even if it’s in a subconscious way. When standing back, looking at the building from a distance, these details can make a relatively big difference. Compared to a building that lacks these details, the facade walls would look just like a simple box.
The next picture is taken from a little bit closer where you can see the recessed block more in the center of the frame of the photograph. This particular recess, done at several of the blocks in the building for aesthetic variation, sits roughly half of an inch into the remainder of the field plane of the vertical facade.
To make this modification to the block, the internal flange can be just cut, in many different types of block, without damaging or degrading the structural capacity of the individual block. From a structural perspective though, many of these blocks could simply be omitted and the wall would still maintain an overall strength rating.
When the walls are viewed from a angle that highlights the three dimensional perspective of the overall configuration, you can see that the bands added to the block wall are effective in conveying a degree of architectural detail and interest.
Looking at the edge of the wall, some of the secrets are revealed because you can see that instead of building this wall with a typical single wythe block, they’ve actually built it in a double wythe configuration. You may expect to see this type of double wythe configuration in historic brickwork, but it would be rare in typical block buildings.
In most cases, both because the block walls can be supported internally with rebar and a grouting of the cells with concrete, and because block walls have a wider base which adds stability, it’s very uncommon to see block walls built in anything other than a single wythe configuration.
We can Help
Our company focuses on historic restoration more than modern building upkeep, maintenance, and construction, but our company understands both types of construction very well and a full picture well-rounded approach is needed in any niche in the construction industry. Although we focus on historic restoration, repointing, tuckpointing and historic brick repair, our company also has technical knowledge and competencies in the areas of modern and contemporary construction as well as we become one of the leaders in that area of the market today. Understanding both historic and modern or contemporary construction is useful because both aspects help understand the challenges and potential solutions for challenges in building science and construction.
We can help with a variety of historic masonry restoration needs and upkeep, from modest tuckpointing and or repointing to complicated and extensive historic masonry restoration. Infinity Design Solutions is a historic restoration specialist contractor specializing in both historic masonry restoration such as tuckpointing our repointing, and brick repair. If you have questions about the architectural details or facade of your historic building in Washington DC, reach out and say hello and if we can help we’ll be glad to assist you. You can email us or call us on the telephone at the following link: contact us here.
