Tenerife architect Fernando Menis recently completed a Polish concert hall with a beautiful crushed brick exterior. While brick is hardly a revolutionary building material, this building uniquely combines crushed brickwork and concrete for a distinctly modern design.
The CKK Jordanki concert hall is a 21,800 square-meter building located in Toruń, Poland. The outside has a rigid structure that seamlessly gives way to a more fluid interior. In order to provide optimum acoustics, Menis gave the building cave-like interior walls that jut in at unexpected angles. The walls are then covered with a mix of concrete and crushed brick through a technique Menis calls 'picado.' As Menis explains, "The visual effect achieved is that of a natural object, a rock."
The mosaic-like design ultimately uses co-existing elements to create a look that is both industrial and modern at the same time.
Crushed Brick Building Facades
This Concert Hall is Covered in Crushed Brickwork and Concrete
Trend Themes
1. Crushed-brick Facades - The combination of crushed brick and concrete in building facades is a growing trend set to revolutionize the construction industry.
2. Picado Technique - The 'picado' technique used to create mosaic-like effects from concrete and crushed brick, is an innovative trend that presents opportunities for further experimentation and application in brickwork construction.
3. Industrial Modern Design - The combination of industrial and modern design elements in buildings, as seen in the CKK Jordanki concert hall, is a trend poised to redefine architectural style.
Industry Implications
1. Construction - The use of crushed brick and concrete in building facades represents a disruptive innovation in construction materials and design.
2. Architecture - The 'picado' technique and the industrial modern design aesthetic present exciting opportunities for architects to experiment with unique and visually striking building facades.
3. Acoustics - The cave-like interior walls of the CKK Jordanki concert hall present a trend for designing acoustically superior concert halls with unconventional shapes and surfaces.