Henry Frederick Chesney

I began to investigate the processes of making, at the centre of this industry, as well as the traditional intersection between ceramics and architecture, the brick wall.

At H.G Matthews 3640 cubic metres of clay is dug on site each year, processed through crushers and grinders, the raw materials, unlike pottery, are unrefined, but fit for purpose.

Squeezed through pug mills, the clay is then piped onto each work bench. Andre through touch alone, cuts, folds and forms the clay into a block with an outer skin of sand creating a crust, acting as a non stick, before throwing it into a mould. Andre makes a brick every 24 seconds and has worked at a brick makers for 35 years, meaning at this moment he holds the skill of someone who has made 24 million bricks, equating to 4 royal Albert halls.

The clamp kiln is a Saxon designed kiln that functions through the stacking of bricks. Each brick is placed on its side leaving a finger widths gap. This gap on the mass of 70,000 bricks acts as the chimney and allows the kiln to function. Therefore, the bricks become both the product and the means of the kilns function. 

One week and fourteen tonnes of wood, the kiln is slowly brought up to the desired temperature of 1200 degrees celsius. During this time, each brick is turned from clay to ceramic and is now responsible for the production of 3.6 kgs of CO2 and has a future that could last thousands of years. Additionally, this kiln also became the centre of the brick yard, a place to eat lunch or chat about the football game last night.

This is where I met Tony, a wood firing kiln specialist whose knowledge became a constant link to industry and my practice.

Because the work was so attached to touch and feel, I had to become a brick maker to understand the core of the questions I was asking. 

I quickly realised that the sloppy gloop of clay was hard to manage and both required a soft touch and a forceful hand. During this week I made 1000 bricks and set about firing them. I realised at this point that with joint hardship created through labour meant the bonding of relationships. And during this time the production of making and firing requires a community. The process of making, stacking, firing and sorting meant I touched the brick 16 times. Additionally, at H.G Matthews clay moves 1.2km from the ground to the finished brick over a course of 3 weeks. These were the inefficiencies, but the human time spent was also the reason for their value, each person along this process had a different way of making which meant each brick had its individual faults, and each mark left by the fire was both a product of the stacker and the firing team.

How can we understand this process to create a new way of constructing architecture?

What is the importance of the kiln and my practice?

I began to design a new kiln that stripped it of the inefficiencies but kept the hand made elements that gave it value. The design was inspired by the old bottle kilns that had littered this landscape in the past. But, it was also the idea of firing a single skin clay building from the earth below it, made in situ, removing the distance traveled and unnecessary touch to become more efficient and hyper localised. However, this firing met with some new problems. That a kiln without internal mass functions in a temperamental way, fluctuating in temperature increasing to then rapidly drop. Furthermore, I found clays weakness, its ability to take sheer force.

In this, I had made a structure that was efficiently made, but, now no longer had the same output in firing.

During this firing I spoke to Tony about a myth in ceramics about a potter building a house with everything they need to live, firing both the structure and the pieces in one. 

The final kiln called Enlil imagined how this would look and function.

The structure became a catenary so that the outer skin worked in compression, a method previously researched by architect Ray Meeker. As well as the outer skin becoming a test for firing a single piece ceramic structure.

The interior of the kiln was then functionally stacked containing everything needed for a dinner/conference a typology built around community, as well as being a tool for conversation and ideas sharing. 

The pieces in this kiln were vessels to drink from as well as to carry water. Plates to eat food grown from the very ground the clay came from, as well as bracelets to decorate our bodies, and luck charms to carry on us for superstition.

The value of these pieces become more than just the ground, they encompass the hardship of making and valued all crafts through clay whether brick making or jewellery at the same level of importance.Sharing the responsibility they all have for the creation for both the function of the kiln as well as the output.

The final event unpacked and hosted a dinner with three locals; Tony the kiln specialist and brick making expert, Kay who grows food using no dig methods and Guan, a local material innovator. It became both an exchange of things and knowledge. Kay brought food from her gardens, whilst Guan and Tony allowed specific knowledge on their specialisms to drive conversation about the future and importance of craft in this landscape. 

The brick wall is the traditional intersection between a ceramicist and an architect. In this project I found it in the kiln and that’s why it is the centre of my investigation. Whist the outer skin is vital for its function and protection, architecture like the kiln is not just a shell. The projects thorough research and intimate knowledge in to clay, the brick making process, its history, culture, community and locality enables my future practice to understand this core information to make informed material decisions, resulting in better architecture.