# Brick Residential houses – what is your favourite exterior colour scheme?



## buildingMyDream (Apr 25, 2009)

Hi all
I hope I am allowed to post this question and hope that it is in the correct thread. I am just wondering what everyone’s favourite colour schemes for BRICK residential houses. So, brick colour (also shade), roof colour, guttering and piping, windows, entrance and garage doors.
If anyone has some pictures to share that would be greatly appreciated as well


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## tpe (Aug 10, 2005)

buildingMyDream said:


> Hi all
> I hope I am allowed to post this question and hope that it is in the correct thread. I am just wondering what everyone’s favourite colour schemes for BRICK residential houses. So, brick colour (also shade), roof colour, guttering and piping, windows, entrance and garage doors.
> If anyone has some pictures to share that would be greatly appreciated as well


In the Frank Lloyd Wright houses in Chicago, it's not about the bricks per se; rather, it is with the mortar courses in between.

Frank Lloyd Wright famously insisted that the VERTICAL sections of mortar be *colored* to match the color of the adjacent bricks. The horizontal courses were usually left "white", to contrast with the red of the bricks above and below. 

He does this in order to increase the sense of HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT in the architecture (an idea he sort of adopted from traditional Japanese architecture). 

You can see excellent examples of this in Chicago. I post a few examples, taken from flickr.

*Robie House 1909 (University of Chicago).* Notice the strong horizontal movement.







































*Heurtley House, 1902 (Oak Park).* Notice that the same principle is also applied to the mortar courses in the archway.


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## dschill (Jun 16, 2009)

I like the darker red brick color as pictured in the first pic.


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## 540_804 (Jan 21, 2008)

I don't have pictures (I'll try to find some) but locally there are quite a few houses from the 30s-60s in the Bungalow style who used the different shades and colorations of bricks to create patterns. Very subtle patterns but noticeable. For instance one house has a cross-hatch/diagonal patter made from red and darker-red bricks...it looks almost like an argyle pattern. As strange as that sounds it looks really good. 


Imagine this except the color differences were much subtler:










I also really like painted brick.


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## OakRidge (Mar 9, 2007)

tpe said:


> In the Frank Lloyd Wright houses in Chicago, it's not about the bricks per se; rather, it is with the mortar courses in between.
> 
> Frank Lloyd Wright famously insisted that the VERTICAL sections of mortar be *colored* to match the color of the adjacent bricks. The horizontal courses were usually left "white", to contrast with the red of the bricks above and below.
> 
> He does this in order to increase the sense of HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT in the architecture (an idea he sort of adopted from traditional Japanese architecture).


Basically updated Roman brick it appears.


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## tpe (Aug 10, 2005)

OakRidge said:


> Basically updated Roman brick it appears.



Well the Roman style of brickwork mixes stone and brick at set intervals or alternating bands, as can be seen in the Theodosian walls at Istanbul/Constantinople, for instance...


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## OakRidge (Mar 9, 2007)

I was speaking of the dimensions of the bricks themselves.


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## tpe (Aug 10, 2005)

OakRidge said:


> I was speaking of the dimensions of the bricks themselves.



Can you elaborate on this a bit further?


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## OakRidge (Mar 9, 2007)

Frank Lloyd Wright specifically chose a type of brick known as "Roman" brick due to its dimensions. Unlike the traditional sizes the Roman brick is stretched horizontally giving the structure a more horizontal look.

An example of a Roman structure using the brick:









An ancient tomb on Appian Way in Rome featuring extensive Roman brickwork in opus lateritium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_brick

You can actually see the brick used in the wall you posted. The arches above the openings would be composed of the "Roman" brick.


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## tpe (Aug 10, 2005)

OakRidge said:


> Frank Lloyd Wright specifically chose a type of brick known as "Roman" brick due to its dimensions. Unlike the traditional sizes the Roman brick is stretched horizontally giving the structure a more horizontal look.
> 
> An example of a Roman structure using the brick:
> 
> ...


Very interesting. I see. Yes, I am familiar with the more horizontal forms of Roman brickwork, but I had thought that they were more "flat" than the ones FLW used. But yes, I do see it in the picture of the archway.

But I think what really gives the horizontal feel to the brickwork is his matching the color of the mortar to the left and to the right of each brick, while leaving the ones at the bottom and at the top uncolored. So, although the flatness of the Roman bricks do contribute to it, I think that the coloring of the mortar is what truly gives it a monumentally horizontal feel.

He didn't exactly borrow this idea from Japanese architercture. But the influence/prominence of horizontal lines is quite extensively documented.

http://www.nshss.org/scholarships/academic_papers07/leneweaver.pdf


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