Focusing on the paradoxes of the brick

Copenhagen is the UNESCO World Capital of Architecture 2023. The year also marks the 400th anniversary of Copenhagen's Masonry Guild and the introduction of CO2 requirements for new buildings in Denmark. The “Bricks in Common” pavilion located on the waterfront of Copenhagen illustrates how CO2 reducing bricks will change the future.

A temporary pavilion in Copenhagen

Thinking of Denmark, the first impression that comes to mind are the red brick buildings that make its Danish cities so charming. Copenhagen was selected as the UNESCO World Capital of Architecture for 2023. Bricks are a part of the Danish architectural tradition and therefore also of the event to celebrate this accolade.

The paradoxes of the brick

“Bricks have played a central role in Danish architecture and is an important part of our architectural heritage”, explains Nanna Flintholm, architect and partner at the Danish firm AART Architects. “As a building material, bricks have many advantages: it is a robust and durable material that ages gracefully and can be recycled under the right conditions. But bricks also pose a challenge because manufacturing them consumes a great quantity of resources. Building with bricks in the future will require innovation and new approaches to the material, taking carbon emissions, consumption of resources and recycling into account.”

To draw attention to this need for progress within the construction sector, AART worked with Egernsund Wienerberger and other partners to design a pavilion sited by the Copenhagen harbour. The project is called “Bricks in Common”. It addresses the paradoxes in using bricks as a building material, focusing on the tradition of using bricks while also examining how they can be used sustainably in the architecture of the future.

The evolution of bricks

The pavilion consists of three crossed arches of different sizes. Despite their differences in size, all three arches have roughly the same carbon footprint of one tonne. The critical factors are the percentage of recycled material used, the burning of the bricks and their type. The smallest arch has been built from a traditional, solid brick burned using conventional gas. The middle arch represents the present and has been built using the most climate-friendly and sustainable bricks currently on the market – the CO2 reducing LESS bricks from Egernsund Wienerberger, which consist of 15% less material and are burned with certified biogas.

The middle arch also consists of 30% recycled bricks, and reduce emissions by 50% per square meter compared to the smallest arch.The biggest arch, however, reduces carbon emissions by a full 75% per square meter compared to the smallest arch. This arch was built with a share of up to 70% recycled bricks. "Bricks in Common" gives us a preview of how to reach the goal for 2030.