Bricklaying is a really beautiful craft. In the hands of a master bricky, comparatively coarse materials can assemble into an almost geometrically perfect building. But why? Why are we still messing about with all that mixing mortar and trowelling and hodding etc etc?
Today’s invention is to de-skill building by using more finely manufactured bricks. No need to demand clever, springy materials and attempt to replicate Lego at large scale. These could still be essentially made of fired earth but let’s have them made to fit together very closely…if the Inca can do it, why can’t we? Once the foundations are down (levelled by gravity) the construction can be accelerated -even by self-builders and diy-ers.
Structural strength and assembly accuracy could be achieved, without any mortar, by moulding in male and female location devices in the form of robust interlocking positive and negative pyramids on the top, bottom and end surfaces. The weight alone would hold these in place and no significant air or water transmission would occur because of the minute, angled flow paths between interlocking bricks which this would achieve.
