Postby Nathan » December 2nd, 2015, 12:01 pm
I think it's an important question... It's about the material and the feel... should you use brick? yes of course it gives people a certain emotion and connection with the building when they see it. However you loose that when it's done in a way that it invalidates itself. It's seen as a strong and long lasting material, warm and comforting. If you're going to put that up in a super thin false looking application it's going to look 'wrong' and loose the meaning we've come to appreciate. Just like using any other material improperly. If you use the wrong material and structure on a suit, it'll look bad, that doesn't mean people should stop wearing suits.
I think the reason we've seen it used poorly in the past is because developers and people are misinformed about the value of real brick/architectural when the fake and thin brick salesman comes in and spews off a lot of "benefits" of thing brick. Then all they see is the dollar signs and they don't make decisions based on what's a better long term investment, especially in terms of durability and timelessness.
And more to your point... Arches and things were structural, but all of the decorative elements in the buildings say in Minneapolis were just aesthetic as well, it's not like they were doing it for any structural reason, at least not since greco/roman times really.
Brick is still a VERY good material to coat our buildings in. even if they're no longer being constructed out of it.