Building with clay brick has changed starkly over the last few decades. Driven by ever higher requirements for heat insulation, since the 1970s there have been tremendous advances in the development of backing bricks. This “decathlete” should continue to score points in all disciplines. But the merciless environment of politics and competition has made the hurdles ever higher. The result was a broad spectrum of high-quality products – from svelte vertically perforated bricks with admirably low thermal conductivity down to 0.075 W/mK to the thermally almost evenly matched power packs for multi-storey construction that are filled with mineral thermal insulation materials and ensure optimum sound insulation. All the more astonishing are the recurring questions from designers on whether monolithic building is still feasible in the age of the energy saving ordinance in Germany. Well, how many storeys would you like? Here too, a clever designer for the supporting structure may help monolithic exterior brick walls reach even loftier heights – the only recently realized 8-storey residential buildings in line with the KfW-efficiency-40 energy standard testify that building with modern large-size bricks for monolithic exterior walls has not reached an end by a long way yet.

Dipl.-Ing. Michael Pröll, Ziegel Zentrum Süd e.V.