Page "Brick" Paragraph 19

The trend of building upwards for offices that emerged towards the beginning of the 19th century displaced brick in favor of cast and wrought iron and later steel and concrete.

Some early ' skyscrapers ' were made in masonry, and demonstrated the limitations of the material – for example, the Monadnock Building in Chicago ( opened in 1896 ) is masonry and just 17 stories high ; the ground walls are almost thick, clearly building any higher would lead to excessive loss of internal floor space on the lower floors.

Brick was revived for high structures in the 1950s following work by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Building Research Establishment in Watford, UK.

This method produced 18-story structures with bearing walls no thicker than a single brick ( 150 – 225 mm ).

This potential has not been fully developed because of the ease and speed in building with other materials ; in the late-20th century brick was confined to low-or medium-rise structures or as a thin decorative cladding over concrete-and-steel buildings or for internal non-load-bearing walls.