A Brick Façade Designed to Come Apart

ClickBrick Pure challenges one of the most familiar assumptions about brick façades: that once built, they are meant to stay together.

Instead of relying on conventional mortar, the dry-stacked system is conceived so that individual bricks can be separated again. The shift is subtle in appearance but significant in construction. A façade can retain the visual qualities associated with masonry while introducing the possibility of disassembly, replacement and future reuse.

Campus Arenberg KU Leuven Extension by RADAR architecten; photography: © wienerberger

The Marziale configuration was used for the extension of KU Leuven’s mathematics department at Campus Arenberg, designed by RADAR architecten and completed in 2023. The project is particularly relevant because it demonstrates the system at the scale of an institutional building rather than as a prototype or exhibition sample. What it proves is that demountable brickwork can be incorporated into a completed architectural project; what it cannot yet demonstrate is what will actually happen to those bricks at the building’s eventual transformation or end of life.

Campus Arenberg KU Leuven Extension by RADAR architecten; photography: © wienerberger

For architects, the system therefore needs to be understood beyond its visible surface. Corners, openings, anchoring and the limits of the approved assembly are central to how the façade performs in a specific project. The possibility of taking bricks back or reusing them also depends on the technical and contractual conditions under which the system is supplied.

Campus Arenberg KU Leuven Extension by RADAR architecten; photography: © wienerberger

The architectural value lies in making those future conditions part of the construction decision from the beginning. Instead of treating the façade as a permanently bonded surface, ClickBrick Pure considers it as an assembly of components that may one day need to be removed, replaced or used again. The brick remains familiar. What changes is the relationship between permanence and construction.

Photography: © wienerberger

Wienerberger B.V. is a Netherlands-based manufacturer of ceramic building materials and part of the international wienerberger Group. The company develops brick, façade, roofing and paving solutions, with a focus on innovation, durability and circular construction.

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