Mandra Brickworks Defining the Hearth of a Brickfield

Abstract

"Throughout the phases of society, the hearth formed that sacred focus around which the whole took order and shape." ' The hearth has been the center for many things. It forged the first society as the primitive man settled around it after a hunt, it was the core around which dwellings wrapped and it was the furnace which gave us the burnt brick. Much like the hearth from which it was made, the brick is a building block that has evolved through time. Brickfields have been home to brickmaking when firing techniques were first introduced in this industry. This process of firing bricks at high temperatures has manifested in the form of the furnace, which now dominates the landscape of a brickfield. Architecturally, the cylindrical chute functions as an industrial hearth, a visible center around which all activity is generated: bricks are stacked around it, terracotta pieces are arranged along its periphery, and the workers gather around with their steaming mugs of tea as it lights up another batch of earth. This thesis explores the concept of the hearth as the central element that ties all brick-making processes together and uses it to generate a sequence of telling spaces that can accommodate this manufacturing process. The project is rooted in the small village of Arjan in Mandra, not so much a rural settlement as it is a brickfield. With over 20 operational brick kilns, its landscape is populated with furnaces. Its Potoharan topography is mined in various regions as workers excavate the earth forming a panorama of a production unit. It is in this setting that the concept of hearth is explored as the tangible and intangible origin for brickworks and traditional bricklaying practices, while providing tourists a visual story of the age-old brick and related practices.