Ironspot Brick Common

A seamless brick texture with ironspot brick arranged in a common pattern. The image represents a physical area of 1012 x 703 mm (39.8 x 27.7 inches) in total, with each individual unit measuring approximately 245 x 80 mm. The joints are filled with rough concrete and are 8 mm (0.3 inches) in width.

Bricks are one of the most common materials in architecture and construction. With recorded uses dating back over 9000 years, brick traces its origins to mud and straw adobe blocks as found in Africa, southern Asian and southern American regions where hot, dry climates quickly dried and cured the earth bricks naturally in the heat. Clay bricks were used extensively throughout the Roman Empire thanks to the Romans’ invention of the mobile kiln, an innovation on the kiln used by ancient Egyptian builders to fire clay mixtures when placed in moulds, which enabled brick manufacture across Rome’s territories, using an increased range of local clay and soil compositions. Bricks were then regularly used in Europe from around the 12th century, when northern European countries traded materials, knowledge and design ideologies with Italy during the Gothic and Renaissance eras, spreading the use of Roman designs and construction methods, until dying out for a period due to bricks’ inability to recreate the intricate shapes of ornament and decoration associated with these styles. The exploration of new forms and manufacturing methods seen a return to popularity, combined with their increasingly popular reputation as a replacement to timber in densely populated cities in the 17th century, particularly London, due to their far superior fire retarding properties, following a spate of particularly serious, destructive urban fires that ripped through older timber building stock. Other cities followed suit during the 18th century industrial revolution as bricks proved a hardy, enduring, cost effective, simple to construct, reliable, impervious, consistently dimensioned building unit protecting against damp air and wet ground conditions, especially after the invention of fast, mass manufacturing techniques. Brick was then popularised in northern America and other English, Belgian, Dutch, French, Spanish and Portuguese territories, through early émigrés taking their masonry skills abroad. They remain popular due to their readily available raw materials, simple manufacture, low cost, ease of maintenance, basic-skilled assembly and attractive variety of colours, textures and finishes. Modern brick can be cut to standard sizes to form a versatile, durable building product, or specially manufactured to suit a variety of angles, curves and unique shapes for decorative purposes on organic forms. Hard-wearing and with excellent structural and thermal properties, they are a popular, efficient, human-scaled material for paving, load-bearing walls, cladding systems, landscaping and interior decorative walls, while a variety of finishes and palettes within the one product can create rustic, weathered, industrial aesthetics increasingly popular in bespoke, contemporary domestic, hospitality and workplace environments; practical, perfunctory settings; or decorative façades. Preferred for their domestic, human scale, bricks are one of the easiest construction materials to handle and build with when combined and laid with cementitious mortars. They are well suited to domestic, care, primary education and community building types in all climatic settings provided they are manufactured correctly and to the right specifications with respect to their locale. Alternating between rustic and smooth finishes, the Ironspot brick is strikingly varied between light, buff colours and burnt oranges, with black, graphite or grey-blue patches appearing on part or all of the brick faces, providing a unique, highly desirable, non-uniform appearance. These spots and pores are of varying sizes, occurring due to the mineral content in the raw material possessing different firing temperatures from that of the clay base material from which the bricks are manufactured. The chemical reaction under the extreme temperatures of the firing process along with exposure to oxygen causes the pockets of iron to 'burst' and flare across the exterior of the brick, resulting in smooth, silver-grey blobs and patches, with some bursts of deep purple-blue hues. Many of the bricks feature these charcoal marks across their faces, with base colours ranging from sand, soft yellow and brown with elements of pastel red-pink to deep, rich, orange-brown finishes on a variety of smooth and rustic finishes. The distinctive, striking marks across the otherwise light, neutral toned backgrounds are reminiscent of knots in timber or veins in marble, while the variety and contrast of deep, dark splashes on top of buff shades create a striking and dynamic texture for load bearing walls, cladding or landscaped elements. The variety of earthy, neutral tones allow the Ironspot brick to compliment natural stone, concrete, and metals and can be used in a range of external and internal components, including building cladding for facades, walls, and landscaping elements, or for internal decoration and fireplaces. Finishes range from smooth to coarse; appearing rough and scraped due to the finishing process during their manufacture, with creased finishes also littered throughout, so-called due to the unique creases on the brick face, which is specially applied to brick clay before the heating process – the resulting slightly wavy texture on an otherwise smooth surface strikes a balance between contemporary intrigue and an industrial, aged, weathered aesthetic, mimicking gentle cuts and erosions by water on stone. Burnt clay bricks, of which this is a variant, are amongst the most traditional form of brick, displaying a rich variety of natural colours due to the chemical properties of the clay used, ranging from silvers and whites to yellows, oranges, reds and burnt brown, making this particular brick useful for tying into existing projects, or to stand out against neutral bricks or less vibrant materials. The slightly rough, worn surface texture is desirable for creating rustic aesthetics, or to match older, weathered brick on existing buildings. The combination of deep navy and grey-blues with sandy, golden and rust tones creates a pleasantly gentle, light, warm, mellow, feel. Clay bricks are an ideal material for use on domestic, healthcare and education façades and interiors due to their human scale and reassuring, natural colours and radiant warmth, or for large scale projects as they are cheap to produce and lay on site.

This texture uses a common or American bond. A true common bond contains between three and nine stretcher courses for every header course however the total number of sretchers can be adjusted. A bond with a single stretcher course for every header course is traditionally called an English bond while a bond with five stretchers for every header is known as Scottish bond.

This image is seamless, meaning it can be tiled repeatedly for use in architectural drawings and 3D models. It can be used as a SketchUp texture, Revit material or imported into Photoshop for use in 2D illustrations. You can download a high resolution version of this texture and a matching bump map or CAD hatch (compatible with AutoCAD and Revit) using Architextures Create with a Pro Subscription.