Welcome Back, Brick.
On my daily scroll through Feedly, I ran across a link to a piece discussing the resurgence of brick in design.
Apparently, brick has been in decline since the 2008 housing market collapse. But it’s back, being reclaimed by the ton, as architects charmed by its Lego-like versatility swoop in to create structures that can be neither huffed nor puffed down.
From an aesthetic perspective, I don’t love brick. It reminds me of the suburban houses and churches that bored me senseless as a child. And the images in the linked piece are far from inspirational or beautiful.
So I took a short trip around the Web, looking for more compelling images of brickwork. A couple of them really jumped out at me, reminding me that there are ways to take their stocky, blocky forms and make them feel lighter and more versatile.
We don’t even think of what bricks are anymore: they're hardened earth, clay mixed with water, shaped and fired to extreme hardness. Despite the pre-fab feel, it's actually building with earth.
The block of bricks looks out of place, but has a lot in common with the surrounding rocks. (Photo from Point Isabel, the East Bay's best dog park.)
I work with a natural builder, and for one of our sessions, we sat together, mixing clay for new brickwork. After an hour of wetting and squeezing and forming local clay into wet little lumps, I left there feeling like I could do anything—my hands felt alive!
That evening, I made dinner, cleaned the dishes, did a bit of writing, and did it all happily—all the boring, slow, mundane things that I generally resent. While I was helping her, the clay was helping me!
There is something about working with earth—with material—that reminds us that we actually have the ability to make change in the world. Like real physical change. We can take powdery earth, strengthen and shape it, and mortar it into long-lasting, functional edifices. We have the ability to make whims and ideas into form.
Which of course we all know. But it’s easy to forget.
Go play with a brick.
Want to power up your meditative and visualization skills? Follow M + P on Pinterest where you'll find more images of nature grouped by Element.