Company Details | |
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Company Name | Ketley Brick Co Ltd |
Company Address | Dreadnought Works Pensnett, Brierley Hill Brierley Hill DY5 4TH United Kingdom Map It |
Your Contact Details | |
Name | Dana Patrick-Smith |
Job Title | Marketing |
Email hidden; Javascript is required. | |
Phone | 07775663116 |
Role of this organisation in the project being entered | Manufacturer and designer |
Category - Exterior |
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Other Categories |
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Entry Details | |
Name of organisation entering the Awards (if different from above) | Ketley Brick Co Ltd |
Role of this organisation in the project being entered (if different from above) | Manufacturer and designer |
Project/Product Name (written how it should appear) | Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II |
Project Address | Dreadnought Works Pensnett, Brierley Hill Brierley Hill DY5 4TH United Kingdom Map It |
Client Name | Ketley Brick Ketley Brick |
Designer/Architect Name | Richard Dyer |
Contractor Name | Ketley Brick Ketley Brick |
Project/Product Description | Brixel Bricks How it works There are 5 different types of Brixel bricks each with either one, two or three pyramidal protrusions in combination with two, one or no flat sections. The 3D brixel visualisation tool produces a 3D representation of the brick image with the bricks laid in 3rd bond and determines where each type of the five brixel types needs to be placed and how many of each type are required. It shows how the design will look at the chosen resolution and how it plays with light from different directions. Integral to the projecting brick facade is the play of light and dark and the way the bricks cast shadows as the light shifts, which really brings the representation alive. Lighting tools are used to show how the pattern works with the movement of the sun during the day. ‘Brixel’Brick performance The first ‘Brixel’ brick façade The first structure to be made to demonstrate the capability and potential of the innovative ‘Brixel’ brick technology for architectural surface design is a textured façade of HM Queen Elizabeth II designed and constructed for the Platinum Jubilee in June 2022 at a cost of only £1280. This commemorative 3.5 x 3.5 metre silhouette of HM Queen Elizabeth II in brick relief is currently on display in a temporary installation at The Brickworks Museum in Southampton. In order to create the structure, a binary image of Queen Elizabeth was selected and rendered into “brixels” using the Brixel tool. Once the level of detail and the final 3D image was approved, the required number of each “brixel” type was calculated, and a template for the position of each brick unit was produced to ensure minimal waste. 676 Ketley Staffordshire red brick slips, made up of the five different ‘Brixel’ brick slips, together with regular plain-faced brick slips, were used in the construction of this intricate façade of subtly changing light and shadows. The textured silhouette of HM Queen Elizabeth II demonstrates the level of detailing and precision that could only have been achieved through this pioneering ‘Brixel’ technology. Impact on the industry Keith Aldis, chief executive of the Brick Development Association, commented: - “There’s no doubt that Ketley Brick’s brand-new ‘Brixel bricks’ have tremendous potential to create intricate brick relief facades… Brick is such a wonderfully versatile building material, which is graphically underlined by Ketley’s ground-breaking and imaginative initiative.” Impact on Ketley |
Materials Used | Ketley’s clay ‘Brixel bricks’, (a set of five practical machine-extruded pyramidal shaped bricks which can be arranged to form textured projecting façade designs) and its associated Brixel digital technology opens up significant potential for creating ambitious and innovative designs in brickwork, thereby allowing architects to create complex brick relief patterns in a commercial and cost-effective way. Virtually any suitable image can be converted through the Brixel technology into a two tone, binary design, and incorporated into a wider façade – the larger the façade, the greater the detail that can be incorporated (as increasing the number of Brixels enables a higher resolution to be achieved) Benefits include: - • Scope of design – opens up the potential for architects to create ever more complex brickwork designs. |
Sustainability | Total embodied carbon of A tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II • Total embodied carbon • Durability • Local production • Sustainable manufacturing • Lifecycle • Naturally sourced • Minimal wastage • Fire resistance • High thermal mass. Brick sustainability credentials The sustainability of clay brick as a building material is well documented: - • Brick structures have an A+ rating awarded by the building research establishments (BRE) Green Guide, https://tools.bregroup.com/greenguide/ggelement.jsp?buildingType=Retail&category=1005&parent=6&elementType=10117 |
Issues Faced | The main challenge in developing Brixel Bricks was ensuring that the actual physical bricks had a profile that could be extruded by machine and handled through the drying and firing process efficiently, thereby making them commercially viable. During the development process, various ideas were explored including dividing each digital brick into 12 rather than 3 pixels. However, this resulted in a profile that could not be extruded. To create an accurate representation of the image, the pixels needed to be square, and it became clear that the best profile that could be extruded as a brick by machine would be the 3-pixel design. This had up to three triangular protrusions per brick, allowing each brick to have up to 3 elements of relief, where each pixel is 65x65mm and each brick included space for the equivalent of 2 10mm mortar joints to maintain the 1/3 bond over the facade. The final ‘Brixel brick’ design with its 3-pixel units struck the right balance between achieving a level of detail that would provide a good representation of an image, and the requirements to produce them in a commercially viable way. Another challenge was to find a way to extrude the different shapes without the cost of making different dies. By working closely with the inhouse engineers in the Ketley factory, the development team was able to work with different plates made from laser cut steel which were bolted onto the existing brick die to create the 5 different brick profiles. |
Additional Comments | Shortlisted for Innovation 2023 Brick Awards |
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