WINTERTHUR.- “Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together,” as architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe aptly put it. So do bricks – those familiar, often under-appreciated and apparently banal objects – really have enough to offer for an entire exhibition?

Since antiquity, bricks have been a vital building material which – one by one – shape buildings, neighbourhoods and cities, making history tangible. From the walls of Rome to contemporary construction projects, the building brick demonstrates its diverse nature as a material, design element and bearer of cultural significance. Right up to the present day, clay, a natural raw material, is extracted from pits, formed into shapes and fired into bricks. However, industrialization and new ecological challenges have brought big changes in the way these construction elements – from handmade solid bricks to large insulating blocks – are made.

“Bricks Reloaded” brings together some 50 works by architects, designers and artists that examine brick from different perspectives. The exhibition has a particular focus on brick's manufacture, ecological properties, and reinterpretation by designers and artists. It shows how this traditional building material still offers a wide range of opportunities today as it is constantly reinvented.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT, BRICK?”

Louis Kahn, the American architect who is known for his imposing brick buildings in Dhaka (Bangladesh), among other things, conducted an imaginary conversation with a brick during a lecture in 1972, when he asked it: “What do you want, brick?” The brick replied: “I like an arch.” By questioning brick in this way, Louis Kahn incorporated its specific properties and characteristics into his designs, rather than imposing his own conceptual vision on it, such as a static concrete framework.

What can a brick tell us? About its place of origin and the quality of its clay, for example? Or its thermal characteristics, depending on whether it is hollow or solid, air-dried or fired? Can you tell by looking at it whether it can be recycled or not? And finally, what design concepts or historical and geographical references does a brick-built structure explore? This short list of questions is the starting point for “Bricks Reloaded”.





The exhibition looks at this apparently banal object from three different aspects. It considers the technical and design properties of bricks, according to how they are arranged in a piece of masonry. It presents the perspectives and comments of a number of artists, architects and designers regarding the present or future manufacture of bricks. And lastly, the show opens the way to freely interpreting the two traditional production methods: extrusion and mould pressing.

In 2025, CID Grand-Hornu mounted the exhibition “Que veux-tu, brique?”, bringing together some 50 works by architects, designers and artists, from the modernist era to the present day. The Gewerbemuseum Winterthur presents an extended version of “Bricks Reloaded” in cooperation with CID Grand-Hornu, complemented by examples of Swiss architecture, design and industry and with a special section in the permanent Materials Laboratory exhibition.

BRICKS IN WINTERTHUR

“Bricks Reloaded” sheds light on the design-related, material, technical and cultural aspects of bricks. The Gewerbemuseum Winterthur complements it with local features and contemporary projects. A large number of brick-built workshops may still be found on the former industrial site of the Sulzer engineering works in Winterthur. Here, the cityscape reflects the encounter of two successful industrial sectors dating from the late 19th century: the Sulzer iron foundry and the Keller brickworks in Pfungen and Dättnau. Unrendered brickwork was a feature of Winterthur’s architecture for several decades in the 19th and early 20th centuries: from factories and warehouses to workers’ tenements and factory owners’ villas.

WINTERTHUR PICTURE ARCHIVE

In cooperation with Winterthur Libraries and the Winterthur conservation authority, the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur has launched a coordinated record of the history of bricks in the city, as part of “Bricks Reloaded”. For this purpose, a new section is being added to the Winterthur Picture Archive, an online reference tool called “Winterthur Glossar”, and this will continue to be expanded over the coming years. A call for participation invites citizens of Winterthur to assist with this record by contributing pictures of brick buildings in the city to the “Doing Things” blog.

SWITZERLAND AS A CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND MANUFACTURING

Around 815 tonnes of bricks are manufactured daily in Switzerland at present, almost covering the entire domestic demand for bricks. This quantity corresponds each year to a wall one metre high and 1450 kilometres long. In other words, it could stretch from Winterthur to Stockholm. Swiss manufacturing and holding companies, which currently make bricks at 19 locations, have in recent years been introducing site optimization measures and research projects in response to changes and challenges in the construction sector and in the market.

“Bricks Reloaded” also presents research projects about new applications and areas of use for bricks. These include two different collaborations with brick companies being undertaken by Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts HSLU. In the GreenBrick project, HSLU is working with Zürcher Ziegeleien to develop products for ‘green’ ceramic façades, while in its cooperation with Kubrix AG, it is exploring the design potential of variable production processes for different surface languages used for brick façades.

SPECIAL SECTION IN THE MATERIALS LABORATORY

In connection with “Bricks Reloaded”, the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur is also giving special attention to bricks in its permanent “Materials Laboratory” exhibition – where it delves even deeper, starting with specific questions about materials and manufacturing processes. What exactly is clay and where does it come from? Where in Switzerland is it extracted and what connection still exists today between clay pits and brickworks?

WITH WORKS AND PROJECTS BY

Alvar Aalto, FI / Josef Albers, DE/US / Atelier Polyhèdre, CH / Ellie Birkhead, UK / Boltshauser Architekten AG, CH / Pierre Culot, BE / Filip Dujardin, BE / Harun Farocki, DE / Patrick Fry, UK / Frédérick Gautier, FR / Gramazio Kohler Research, CH / Louis I. Kahn, US / Francis Kéré, BF/DE / Marijke Jans, BE / Bijoy Jain, Studio Mumbai, IN / ARGE KilgaPopp Architekten and Baumberger & Stegmeier AG, CH / Collaboration between Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts HSLU and Kubrix AG, CH / Collaboration between Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts HSLU and Zürcher Ziegeleien AG, CH / Kueng Caputo, CH / Mercedes Klausner and Anna Saint-Pierre, FR / Anupama Kundoo, IN/DE / Robert Mallet-Stevens, FR / Jorge Méndez Blake, MX / Raymond Meier, CH/US / Baptiste Meyniel, FR / Pinaffo Pluvinage, FR / Maria-Elena Pombo, US / Boonserm Premthada, TH / Zuzanna Skurka, DK / Studio BISKT, BE / Studio Eidola, CH / Olivier Vadrot, FR / Salla Vallotton, CH / Bram Van Derbeke, BE / Aurélien Veyrat, FR / Floris Wubben, NL