In the Brick Weave House, the client’s childhood memory has been preserved through the façade.
Cubbon Peth historically housed Bangalore’s oldest handloom silk weavers’ colony. In the post-industrial era, the art of hand-crafted silk weaving has gradually disappeared over time. The client comes from a family of weavers and has fond childhood memories of traditional weaving systems. To preserve this heritage, traditional weaving was translated into brick weaving, leading to the creation of the Brick Weave House (Figure 1a).
The project is one of many row houses in the weavers’ colony, sharing or abutting walls. The challenge of light and ventilation is addressed only through the street-facing façade or the sky. Reflecting its context metaphorically, the “Brick Screens” are “woven” using MS rods along the fenestration of the façade. The combination of the solid brick wall and the Brick Weave screen blends harmoniously with the historic surroundings of the old town (Figure 1b).
Façade Design
The innovative design of the Brick Weave Screens is achieved by rotating bricks along their axis at angles of 45, 90, and 135 degrees, preventing pigeons, birds, and rain from entering while allowing sufficient light and ventilation, along with privacy (Figures 1c & 1d). The brick weave animates the common staircase and duplex interior with dappled sunlight, offering a subtle visual connection to the street from the inside while appearing mostly opaque from the outside. The brick weave screens generate polygonal voids, casting hexagonal patterns of light during the day and projecting the same patterns outward at night. This effect transforms the façade into a lantern, illuminating the dark alley after sunset (Figure 1e).
