Canada's climate is known for its dramatic contrasts, ranging from frigid winters to hot summers. Large metropolitan areas such as Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver experience a variety of extreme weather conditions: heavy snowfall, ice storms, and freezing temperatures are common. In some cases, temperatures can plummet to below -30 degrees Celsius, especially in cities like Montreal or Quebec. In turn, this weather creates certain challenges for architects and engineers when designing with certain materials. In this context, brick remains a popular construction material not only because of its relatively low thermal conductivity, making it a good insulator during the winter but also because of its connection to the country's architectural heritage.
While brick was once a primary load-bearing material, its role has shifted in modern architecture to being used predominantly for non-bearing walls and exterior cladding. This allows architects to experiment with brick as a texture and design feature, rather than focusing on its structural capabilities. Even though the climate does influence material choices, brick's historical significance and its ability to create intricate textures and patterns in facades make it a compelling choice for contemporary projects across Canada. Modern architects are constantly finding new ways to reinterpret this classic material, exploring various bond layouts and surface textures that add aesthetic richness while ensuring the buildings remain resilient to extreme weather conditions.
Read on to discover 4 projects that showcase brick bond designs across several of Canada's major cities.
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The Colors of BrickHigh Park Residence / Batay-Csorba Architects
The project located in Toronto, Ontario draws inspiration from Italian vaults and punctures them into the volume, achieving a geometry that helps distribute light and air into the interior. In the façade, the brick vault is a subtraction from the monolithic volume, which uses the material as a respectful homage to Toronto's history of masonry detailing. The architects did an adaptation of the Flemish bond, showing single repetitive protruded bricks throughout its entire surface. This becomes an even, but textured plane emphasizing the vaulted profile. The relief also allows the façade to pick up on seasonal changes, creating contrasting shadows in the summer and softening it in the winter when the snow sets on top.
La Géode / ADHOC architectes
This house is located in Montreal, Province of Quebec. The project aims to be a soft densification that fits into the context of Plateau Mont-Royal without distorting it. In this area, brick is one of the most common construction materials, so the designers decided to differentiate the project by creating a brick bond that pops out from the flat plane of the façade to create interesting shadows on sunny days. Over the balconies, the bond creates a screen effect by spacing the bricks at different lengths. The combination of both bonds creates a pattern that gives the project a contemporary look that differentiates the building from its neighbors.
Canvas House / Partisans
Located in Toronto, Ontario, within the neighborhood of Forest Hill, this house is surrounded by Georgian homes. Its square shape uses monochromatic undulating brick patterns that make it stand out from the surrounding houses. The façade creates a rhythm by swelling and receding to create overhangs, like the motions of a theater drape. The pattern is formed by a repeating unit of five bricks. Optics are accomplished by pairing single brick with individually improvised corbel interpretations, which are reminiscent of the elegance of a Georgian home.
The Livery Shop / Modern Office of Design + Architecture
The community of Inglewood, the oldest neighborhood in Calgary, province of Alberta, is comprised of many industrial typologies. In recent years, many start-ups, breweries, galleries, and restaurants have been moving into the old buildings, creating a new sense of optimism. The building is wrapped in the east-west direction with standing seam metal, forming a container for the brick in the north and south facades. Similar to La Géode in Montreal, this brick bond is formed by the repetition of a single brick protruding from a flat plane on the façade. However, in this project, the designers decided to play with the geometry of the texture, using the individual bricks, as sort of pixels on a screen, to generate a geometric shape that evocates a double gable roof.
This article is part of an ArchDaily curated series that focuses on built projects from our database grouped under specific themes related to cities, typologies, materials, or programs. Every month, we will highlight a collection of structures that find a common thread between previously uncommon contexts, unpacking the depths of influence on our built environments. As always, at ArchDaily, we highly appreciate the input of our readers. If you think we should mention specific ideas, please submit your suggestions.
