14.08.2012 | Hamburg | Germany

Co2olBricks visits brickyard

On 14 August 2012, the Co2olBricks partner Hamburg Department for Heritage Preservation  had organised a stakeholder meeting with an excursion to compare two different techniques to make bricks.  In Glückstadt ca. 60 km along the river Elbe towards the North Sea the first brickyard named “Ziegelwerk Blohmesche Wildnis ”. All phases of the working process were explained in situ. The process starts mixing the different elements - for example clay and water - in different percentage and continues shaping the soft brick by extraction in a long beam. After cutting the long beam the bricks are put into the drying chamber and afterwards on a railway like big tray by which the raw bricks are moved through the fire. The actual time in the fire fuelled by natural gas of ca. 1100°C is 3 hours. This the principle of the modern process of producing bricks.

After crossing the river Elbe by ferry the old fashioned way of making bricks was shown in Drochtersen at the “Ziegelei Rusch” founded in 1881. Here the principle is different in that way that a very big kiln is built that is separated in 22 segments that can be separated into chambers. Each chamber is filled with raw bricks and then the fire is started. The manually regulated fire burns for ca. 24 hours and then the fire is moved to the next chamber. The previous chamber starts to cool down. The whole process from filling the chamber, slowly heating it up, increase the fire to the full hat of ca. 1100°C and cooling down takes ca. 3 weeks.. It was really interesting to see how the same process was developed during the years.

During the lunch break, Mrs. Eng. Heike Pfaff presented for Co2olBricks a short presentation called “Schlagregensicherheit von Mauerwerk herstellen, aber wie?!” in which she explained usthe  possibilities  how old brick walls can be made rain proof.

During the bus drive, the lunch break and the visits the participants from the Hamburg Ministry of Urban Development and Environment, three professors from Universities from Hamburg, the heritage departments of Hamburg and Kiel and architects had lively discussions about the many aspects of technical and administrative problems of preserving historic brick walls.