TU Employee Awarded Prestigious International Architecture Prize

In his thesis, David Jan Wilk has examined the reception of brick in building practice. Brick surfaces and buildings are designed by a small group of professionals working in architecture and craft trades – but they are received by the general public. That is why Wilk, a research assistant at the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering, has explored the connection between what is “predetermined” and what is actually “experienced”. “In architecture, it’s always possible to draw a comparison with music, which seeks harmony and avoids dissonance. This perception of calm in the surface and restlessness in the detail, the logic in the sequence and joining of the bricks in the bond and in the building overall is also visible to laypersons,” explains David Jan Wilk.

Brick as a sustainable building material

His thesis thus embraces a topic that is not necessarily at the heart of the architectural debate. This is because our perception of buildings and our unconscious appreciation of architecture are often left out. “Of course, the brick industry uses the emotional factor, which allows for associations such as ‘crafted’, ‘robust’ or ‘for eternity’, to its advantage. Nevertheless, the use of a material should be conducive to the respective architecture and not an end in itself. This is the message formulated in my thesis,” says David Jan Wilk.

For this, he received a Special Mention in the “Newcomer” category of the Fritz Höger Award, in competition with around 600 other entries. At the same time, it is the first acknowledgement by the Fritz Höger Award of a written piece of work. The award has been conferred since 2008 by the “Building with Brick Initiative” of Germany’s Brick and Tile Industry in cooperation with the Association of German Architects (BDA) for both craft-based as well as innovative solutions with brick.

The independent and non-commercial architecture prize is highly regarded internationally. The members of the jury and the participants are also international; other winners come from Mexico and Spain, for example. The prize also aims to help brick to gain new publicity as a product. After all, it has many advantages. “Brick can survive for centuries and be used for almost all building tasks. In addition, it can be produced in any conceivable format using local raw materials. Brick’s potential is destroyed as soon as it is used exclusively as a decorative element,” explains David Jan Wilk. “A brick is sustainable, which plays an important role especially in times when raw materials are scarce,” he adds.

Brick architecture in the Ruhr region

The influence of brick architecture can still be felt in the Ruhr region today. Above all many listed buildings or their façades are made of brick. “This is due to the local building culture, which relied on brick especially in the mining days of old. If we look at the future of brick for the Ruhr region and in general, we should ask ourselves the following questions: What role can brick play for the Ruhr region in the long term? How can we work with raw materials and building structures in an expedient way? Brick delivers some ideas for what is, in essence, a sustainable construction method that is independent of architectural trends,” says David Jan Wilk. That is why he will continue to deal with the reception of built works and brick as a building material in his research work. In teaching too, brick is something that accompanies David Jan Wilk every day, since students learn about the possibilities offered by brick in the framework of courses on “The Fundamentals and Theory of Building Construction”.

Fritz Höger Award

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