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A. Condello
fired brick about 3500 BCE marked a turning point in brick construction, the bricks
now strong in all seasons, serviceable in a variety of climates’ [42]. Moreover, ‘the
invention of the fired brick was inseparable from the invention of the oven; some
evidence suggests that the same enclosures were first used for both cooking and
constructing. In cooking bricks, the kiln walls do work no open-air fire could’ [42].
As a result, the firing process enabled bricks to be crafted well, which led to the
subsequent invention of the ‘frogging machine’ contraption.
Baking bricks and cooking food in the same kiln are inextricably linked as a dual
craft, saving energy for one purpose. In rethinking about what was organic then and
how this relates to Morocco today, in ‘Architecture and food composition’ Peter
Kubelka writes, ‘bricks baked in a kiln had to be invented. By doing this, man had
created a valuable new material that made it possible to build much more complicated
buildings than simple huts to live in. Building with fired bricks revolutionised the
practical possibilities of architecture, and with the architects’ imaginations’ (2007,
p. 17). And since bricks are handcrafted components, ‘they are formally repetitive and
can be used to create much freer shapes than elements adopted directly from nature
like stone blocks or tree trunks’ (2007, p. 17). Cooking food and baking bricks and
their improvisation are inextricably linked since the kiln’s function was twofold:
it exposed a new technique and demonstrates how ‘more-ish’ qualities might have
transformed from biomimicry to formulate lightweight crafted bricks.
This was particularly the case in the nineteenth century, after the Franco-Moroccan
war, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution. (And previously in the twelfth
century, with the increase of the Silk Route in Northern Africa initiated by Moroccan
traveller Ibn Battuta—between China in the East and Scandinavia in the North—
accelerating the manufacturing of quality luxury products.) ‘With the enhancement
of the quality and appearance of brickwork and with the increase in production and
the reduction of cost, the popularity of brick as a building material grew’ [38, p. 53],
especially in the late nineteenth century. Bricks were often made at the construction
site. Brickmaking patents were invented and issued (as in the case of the USA and
elsewhere), and the processes of firing and making moulds became more advanced.
‘Brick masons desired efficiency in the use of materials and labour as well as bricks
with higher quality’ [38, p. 54]. Cast iron contraptions for moulding bricks were
invented as ‘frogging machines’ whereby ‘kicks for forming frogs (indentations in
the bottom of bricks) were built into the moulds’ [38, p. 54].
Curiously, ancient Egyptian brick makers had improvised a crafting technique
to save more clay when firing bricks by interring live ‘frogs’ in the brick. Hence,
‘”frogging”—the familiar (usually pyramidal) indentation in bricks—originates from
the ancient Egyptian custom of creating hollows in their Nile-clay bricks, by interring
live animals, but some historians dispute this deplorable technique (quoted in [39]).
Assisting the pharaohs, the myth of Heket, an Egyptian Frog goddess was invoked in
magical charms to protect the dead on their way to the afterlife as well as defending
the home. Returning to the form of the lightweight brick, the ‘frog recess’ hence
made it easier for the local craftsman to make more bricks with the excess clay and
make them lighter to lay, which also reduced the amount of time to char the bricks
in kilns. ‘Traditional Egyptologists favoured the after-life scenario (baby animals
A. Condello
fired brick about 3500 BCE marked a turning point in brick construction, the bricks
now strong in all seasons, serviceable in a variety of climates’ [42]. Moreover, ‘the
invention of the fired brick was inseparable from the invention of the oven; some
evidence suggests that the same enclosures were first used for both cooking and
constructing. In cooking bricks, the kiln walls do work no open-air fire could’ [42].
As a result, the firing process enabled bricks to be crafted well, which led to the
subsequent invention of the ‘frogging machine’ contraption.
Baking bricks and cooking food in the same kiln are inextricably linked as a dual
craft, saving energy for one purpose. In rethinking about what was organic then and
how this relates to Morocco today, in ‘Architecture and food composition’ Peter
Kubelka writes, ‘bricks baked in a kiln had to be invented. By doing this, man had
created a valuable new material that made it possible to build much more complicated
buildings than simple huts to live in. Building with fired bricks revolutionised the
practical possibilities of architecture, and with the architects’ imaginations’ (2007,
p. 17). And since bricks are handcrafted components, ‘they are formally repetitive and
can be used to create much freer shapes than elements adopted directly from nature
like stone blocks or tree trunks’ (2007, p. 17). Cooking food and baking bricks and
their improvisation are inextricably linked since the kiln’s function was twofold:
it exposed a new technique and demonstrates how ‘more-ish’ qualities might have
transformed from biomimicry to formulate lightweight crafted bricks.
This was particularly the case in the nineteenth century, after the Franco-Moroccan
war, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution. (And previously in the twelfth
century, with the increase of the Silk Route in Northern Africa initiated by Moroccan
traveller Ibn Battuta—between China in the East and Scandinavia in the North—
accelerating the manufacturing of quality luxury products.) ‘With the enhancement
of the quality and appearance of brickwork and with the increase in production and
the reduction of cost, the popularity of brick as a building material grew’ [38, p. 53],
especially in the late nineteenth century. Bricks were often made at the construction
site. Brickmaking patents were invented and issued (as in the case of the USA and
elsewhere), and the processes of firing and making moulds became more advanced.
‘Brick masons desired efficiency in the use of materials and labour as well as bricks
with higher quality’ [38, p. 54]. Cast iron contraptions for moulding bricks were
invented as ‘frogging machines’ whereby ‘kicks for forming frogs (indentations in
the bottom of bricks) were built into the moulds’ [38, p. 54].
Curiously, ancient Egyptian brick makers had improvised a crafting technique
to save more clay when firing bricks by interring live ‘frogs’ in the brick. Hence,
‘”frogging”—the familiar (usually pyramidal) indentation in bricks—originates from
the ancient Egyptian custom of creating hollows in their Nile-clay bricks, by interring
live animals, but some historians dispute this deplorable technique (quoted in [39]).
Assisting the pharaohs, the myth of Heket, an Egyptian Frog goddess was invoked in
magical charms to protect the dead on their way to the afterlife as well as defending
the home. Returning to the form of the lightweight brick, the ‘frog recess’ hence
made it easier for the local craftsman to make more bricks with the excess clay and
make them lighter to lay, which also reduced the amount of time to char the bricks
in kilns. ‘Traditional Egyptologists favoured the after-life scenario (baby animals