Twittern

Specializing in solid bricks – the Steenbakkerijen van Membruggen in Membruggen-Riemst, Belgium

• »1 View of the brickworks

• »2 Marcella Parthoens, Kristof Hex, Sylvain...

• »3 Storage yard

• »4 Kiln stack, unsorted

• »5 Sorted stack of red bricks

• »6 Sorted stack of multicoloured bricks

• »7 The “little chopper” cutter from Keller

• »8 Exit of the tunnel dryer

• »9 Kiln packs of bricks ready for the stacker...

• »10 Natural gas firing system (since 2006)

• »11 Exterior view of the annular kiln

The solid brick is the brickmaker’s archetypal product. A simple product, although its actual production is anything but simple. The solid brick has become a scarce in the product ranges of brickworks. A brickworks that only produces solid bricks is a rarity. But the Steenbakkerijen van Membruggen, in the Belgian Province of Limburg, has never done anything else – genuine solid bricks, I should say, without any perforations whatsoever. But the range is by no means boring, as various sizes and many different natural fired colours ensure variety. The brickworks’ success justifies this specialization in solid bricks – production is sold out long in advance, so there are only few stacks of bricks in the stockyard and kiln has not been shut down for three years. There follows a report on a small family business, which is completely devoted to producing solid bricks.

1 Company history