A New Year- Let's begin with some bricks

Happy New Year!

What better way to start the year than with one of the most fundamental building materials: brick
The following are few pictures I dug up of interesting brick buildings in various locations:

Simple brick building in Tokyo

This building is a great example of a simple and clean architecture. Although lacking any embellishments on the facade, the depth of the window indents emphasizes the volume of the building and prevents it from looking flat. Unfortunately, the control joints (especially the vertical ones) break up the continuity of the running bond of the brick and create very noticeable interruptions. I wonder why they needed so many...

Decorative brick buildings in Tokyo

This building is a decorative, even using bricks to create a frame for the windows and integrating the balconies into the facade.

Red Town, Shanghai

In Red Town in Shanghai, there are a number of interesting brick buildings. In the case above, the brick acts like a skin that peels off from the concrete core.

Red Town, Shanghai

In this case, the brick facade becomes horizontally emphasized as it is interrupted at each level by the floor slab. The building attempts to be interesting by the varying floor plates at each level. However, the result is unsuccessful because the difference between floor plates is not great enough. I feel that if the cantilevers and recesses are stronger, the result would be a dynamic facade instead of an awkward-looking brick building.

Brick building Providence

Here we have a slightly Art Deco-ish building in Providence, RI. Although not very interesting in itself, the facade does create some interesting shadows.

Larsen Hall at Harvard University

Last but not least, we have Roy Edward Larsen Hall at Harvard University. This is Brutalist architecture with a twist. Slightly reminiscent of a medieval castle with tiny windows from the mid to upper levels, the arched openings on the ground level bring about a more traditional feel. The mishmash of elements and styles create a surreal image, as if I am looking at a M.C. Escher drawing.

dropped soffit in cement finish

The one thing that I do not understand about this building is the dropped soffit it employs everywhere. It really breaks up the volumetric reading of the form. However, I have seen this similarly employed in other buildings around Harvard, so perhaps this is a conventional method of construction.