Iconic awards for Dovetail waterstruck brick
“We wanted to develop a waterstruck brick that enables resource-saving, economical and efficient use in prefabricated construction,” explains Bernd Deppe, advisor for architects in Germany and internationally at Deppe Backstein, talking about the Dovetail, which was recently honoured with two Iconic Awards 2020. The brick was declared the winner in both the ‘Product’ and in the ‘Innovative Material’ categories.
“We are delighted about these awards, which confirm that brick is an innovative construction material with which individual, aesthetic and economical solutions can be developed,” says Dr Dirk Deppe, Managing Director at Deppe Backstein-Keramik GmbH.
Prefabricated element facades made of bricks have been around for many years. However, the use of bricks in such structures has so far been associated with great effort and resulting cost. “An interlock of the bricks used so far with the liquid concrete was only possible with additional manual working of the bricks at the construction site,” explains Bernd Deppe. The bricks were generally cut such that a part of the brick could no longer be used. Not so with Deppe’s Dovetail: cut along its length, it makes two fair faces available so that entire brick can be used in the structure and resource-saving application is guaranteed. “Additional cutting work on the construction site is no longer necessary and subsequent adjustments for the interlocking are completely eliminated,” says Bernd Deppe, explaining the advantages. Another special feature of the brick according to the manufacturer is that it can be cut cross-wise and used in a header bond, giving wider scope for design in prefabricated construction.
