wall construction

new affordable housing, BROOKLYN ny

completion - november 2023

project

The project is a 7 unit affordable housing building in bedford stuyvesant brooklyn.

beginning with a lot apportionment of the original ‘T’ shaped property. The shape of the building was pre-defined by the maximum area permitted on site. The form and height of the wall was established from the start.

The adjacent building’s, as well as many of the surrounding buildings are made of brick. Used in rowhouses, churches, garages – red brick is a characteristic of all Bed-Stuy neighborhoods. and while loved for its warmth and tone, it is seldom used in new building developments.

Today walls are about insulation and glazing.  Thermal and moisture performance requirements, as well as cheaper wall construction alternatives make it difficult to use red brick in construction, let alone affordable housing. 

Much of today’s wall construction uses an exterior insulation finishing system, in which brick is unnecessary as structure or even ornament.  In fact with EIFS, brick can be simulated with stucco.  Basically brick has been reduced to a finish.

Brick chips are a common landscaping material made with reclaimed bricks crushed into 3/8” sized aggregate.  Substituting them as the aggregate in a heavy dash stucco finish, the building panels are coated with the same material used throughout the neighborhood.

In using brick chips, the intention was not for the building to mimic or simulate the old brick construction but use it in a more contemporary way. one that helps embed the building into its surrounding context rather than being in contrast to it.