Architectural brickwork looks effortless when it’s done right, but ribaj’s recent case study on three projects in and around London shows the planning behind the finished wall. Each job leaned on mock-ups, material testing, and close coordination with bricklayers and fabricators to get the geometry, joints, and visual rhythm to land.
Near Waterloo Station, the Lambeth Mission redevelopment paired a new mission building with an adjacent 11-storey hotel. Aros Architects, appointed at Stage 3 as delivery architect for Studio Kyson’s design, described the main challenge as turning double-curved arches and deep ground-floor niches into buildable brickwork. The team spent five months sampling and experimenting, then brickwork ran just over a year on site. Standard Petersen-style bricks were laid over a polystyrene mould, accepting wider vertical mortar joints to pull in the curves. Pre-made arched lintels, brick slips, and an IG arch system helped form the upper arches, while corner brick types were introduced to manage tolerance and keep a clean finish.
In central London, Orms used brick to make The Ribbon stand out on Oxford Street, referencing the area’s brickmaking history. The nine-storey, 9,300-square-meter retail and office building used brick-faced precast facade sections made by Thorp Precast, with windows, sills, and lintels integrated before delivery. Installed by crane in 18 weeks, the approach reduced disruption in a high-traffic location. Mock-ups also shaped product selection, clamp-fired bricks created high waste once cut into slips, so the team landed on Ibstock’s Heritage Red Blend. Details like stacked brickwork, soldier bond stacks around openings, controlled brick projections, and color-matched 10mm mortar joints reinforced the sculpted look.
The most personal case study was inside a Victorian mid-terrace home, where architect Adam Draper built a 4.2m by 3m kitchen wall from 440 x 215 x 110mm limestone blocks supplied by RocBloc. Blocks were sorted into grades for face quality, laid horizontally with 4-5mm joints to allow wall ties, then sealed immediately with a water-based clear sealer. Mortar tooling mattered here, too, with raked vertical joints and flush bed joints used to emphasize the wall’s height and texture.
Read the full, original article from ribaj here.