Bricks and Some of Their Innovations

I like the strange things that happen when we think about count nouns as noncount nouns and vice-versa. One situation where this kind of issue comes to mind is with ground covering technologies. This may seem really strange but I find the continuousness of ground and the singularity of bricks used to sometimes cover it a oxymoron of sorts

In some parts of the world bricks are often not just rectangular prisms that sit next to one another. People have added some technology to integrate them and give them some influence on each other. In particular, in Korea, one often finds bricks that have a jagged profile that fits into the bricks around it. This is rather advantageous because the bricks are then much more likely to hold together, so much so that they often ley them without mortar, and as a result, they are reusable, which to my surprise I have seen first person on a few construction sites here.

A further innovation in the design of ground covering bricks is the integration of some holes to let soil through and, eventually, let grass grow. This is not uncommon in most places where bricks are used in gardens but here in Korea I have seen an augmentation of this technology so that the areas of dirt from one brick connect to those on another with a shallow section. The advantage of this system is that grass now grows to hold the bricks together and creates a more adaptive combined surface. I think this is quite brilliant because not only does it support a sustainable use of effective ground cover but it means that parking lots and other places where this method is used end up being about 40% green (made of grass) which is a significant further benefit to the environment. Personally, I think we should not have many flat surfaces in modern construction that do not have some kind of plant sustaining features but that is another thing to talk about. 

The images are just a few of the varieties of interesting ground coverings I have seen in Korea. And of course, there are many in other places it is just that here is where I have started thinking more about this issue. 

There is potential for many more ideas here. What do you think about this? 

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Posted via email from Mark Whiting's posterous