Durability of brick buildings as exemplified
by the traditional village of Dangjia in China

»1 Location of Dangjia in China

»2 Morning exercises on the streets of Dangjia

»3 Plan of Dangjia [4]

»4 Partial view of Dangjia

»5 Main and small alleyways

»6 Sketch of a courtyard dwelling (“Siheyuan”)

»7 Internal arrangement of a “Siheyuan”

»8 External appearance of a “Siheyuan”

»9 “Cavalier gate” with portico, mounting horse stone and ring to tie horses

»10 Ridge ornaments of Dangjia houses

10b

10c

»11 Large-size brick carvings (carved after firing)

11b

»12 Examples of brick carvings on pillar heads (carved after firing)

12b

»13 Carved brick lettering (carved after firing)
The meaning of the first photo is “felicity”; the second is “longevity”; the third and fourth show some family precepts: “If you want your forefather to be proud of you, you should consider studying as an important thing. If you want your offspring to live a happy life, you should use thrift as a family precept.”

»14 Yuan dynasty brick wall, still in use

»15 Examples of decorative hollow bricks (for ridges), tile-ends with animal face and decorative drip tiles

$»16 X-ray diffraction of an archaic brick sample (Instrumental type: D/max—2500; NO.: SX—65; experimental condition: voltage: 40 kV; electric current: 200 mA; target: Cu; graphite monochromatic filter; environment conditions: room temperature: 23° C; humidity: 52%)$

»16 X-ray diffraction of an archaic brick sample (Instrumental type: D/max—2500; NO.: SX—65; experimental condition: voltage: 40 kV; electric current: 200 mA; target: Cu; graphite monochromatic filter; environment conditions: room temperature: 23° C; humidity: 52%)

»17 Round down-draught kiln and water permeating from the top of the kiln in order to create the reducing atmosphere, modelled on an antique brick and tile plant (the photos were taken at Xian Xianmin)

»18 Constructions and brick carvings on a wall, moved and reconstructed in Xi’an (the photos were taken at the FolkCustom Museum of the Central Shaanxi Plain)

The paper demonstrates the excellent durability and service lifetime of constructions built with bricks and roof tiles in traditional dwellings of the central Shaanxi plain in China, taking the village of Dangjia as an example. It briefly introduces the historical development and the layout of the village, the climatic conditions, and the structural characteristics of the courtyard dwellings “Siheyuan”. It describes the bricks and roof tiles used as well as the various brick carvings. It explains briefly the technological principle of reducing firing and gives examples of the recycling of old bricks and roof tiles.

1 Introduction

In the building material market, there is fierce competition between the various building materials: plain concrete, concrete blocks, autoclaved aerated concrete, bricks, wood, steel, glass, etc. Some years ago, competition used to be based on the technical properties, costs and availabilities, etc. of the materials. Recently, environmental issues have become important. Different materials claim that they are better because less grey, i.e. embodied energy is needed for production. This can be true in some cases, however, the operation lifetime of the building has to be taken into...