Flipping Bricks (with Piper Haywood)

RIBA Constructing Communities

Test

The humble brick. A much-loved building material so pervasive and visible in London, almost every façade includes it. The complexities of the origins of the brick’s color form the basis of this installation, creating a dynamic investigation into bricks and their impact on the visual culture within the streetscapes and neighbourhood of London.

Our exploration of this material history of London coincides with an existing study of split-flap display boards – especially fitting with its origins in transport – pioneering commercial mechanisation and dissemination of information. Each flap will mimic courses of brickwork, where the frequency of the brick colour changes will correspond with live train arrival information gathered from transport data feeds, focusing on regions traditionally engaged in the manufacture of bricks used throughout London’s construction. The resulting dialogue between analogue representation, technology and digital fabrication will produce an abstracted, colorful and dynamic representation of London, tying the physical present day to the capital’s history.