History of the brick

History of the brick

Man has used brick for building purposes for thousands of years.  Archaeological excavations have unearthed a brick that authorities dated as 9,000 to 10,000 years old.  The oldest type of brick in the Western Hemisphere is the adobe brick.  Adobe bricks are made from adobe soil, comprised of clay, quartz and other minerals.  Adobe soil can be found in dry regions throughout the world, but most notably in Central America, Mexico and the southwestern United Sates.  The Pyramid of the Sun was built of adobe bricks by the Aztecs in the fifteenth.  Those bricks, made in areas with warm climates, were simply placed in the sunlight for hardening.  Sun-dried bricks, which were used extensively in ancient times, especially in Egypt, were made of clay mixed with straw.  Early in civilization, bricks were baked by using a fuel; these bricks were made of clay mixed with straw to give them added strength during drying and baking in crude ovens. 

Adobe brick near a construction site.  

Concrete Block

Concrete Block

A concrete block is a kind of precast concrete product used in construction.  It is primarily used in the construction of walls and it is sometimes called a concrete masonry unit (CMU).  The design of a concrete block can vary from having one or more hollow cavities with it sides case smooth or with a design.  It is stacked one at a time and held together with fresh concrete mortar to for the length and height of the wall that we need. 

CONCRETE

CONCRETE

Introduction

Concrete is a composite construction material which composing primarily of a hard, chemically inert particulate substance, known as an aggregate that is bonded together by cement and water. The aggregate is generally coarse gravel or crushed rocks such as limestone or granite, along with a fine aggregate such as sand. Portland cement (the common used cement) and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, serve as a binder for the aggregate. Various chemical admixtures are also added to achieve varied properties. Water is then mixed with this dry composite which enables it to be shaped and then solidified and hardened into rock-hard strength through a chemical process known as hydration.

Clay Block

Clay Block

What is block?

- A large solid piece of hard material, for example, rock, stone, or wood, typically with flat surfaces on each side.

What is clay?

-  A stiff, sticky fine-grained earth, typically yellow, red, or bluish-gray in color and often forming an impermeable layer in the soil.

Then what is clay block?

- A common material found in the Underground and surface along with dirt, stone and mud. It is pink-like color.

Stones

Stones in Architecture and their method of construction

            Stone had been used as a type of building material since thousands of years ago. It is well-known and widely recognized by its properties of having great durability and superior artistic quality as well as natural textures, thus becoming the primary choice of building material for building associated with status, power and religion. Below are a few examples of architecture design using stone:

            In dealing with stones, basically there are 2 types of construction methods, which is the dry stone stacking method and stone masonry.