Connections Made at BrickStainable Lead to Cross Country Travel

While mingling with the winners of BrickStainable at the awards ceremony, I heard “Let me know when you’re in town and I’ll show you around”. Well, since then, I have. I’ve taken trips to meet with two of the winners, tour their areas and learn more about what they’re doing now and how BrickStainable impacted them.

The first trip was to see Rizal Muslimin at MIT. I toured four buildings including the new Frank Geary building where I learned how he uses geometric designs to create unique exteriors that impact the functionality of the interior and sustainability of the building as a whole. Plus, it didn’t hurt that the building is made of brick!

Now in his second year of the doctoral program, Rizal found MIT attractive because of its interdisciplinary approach to teaching; combining architecture, fabrics and other materials to invent new and better things. BrickStainable sparked his interest in a similar way—it crossed boundaries and opened up the thought process for using clay brick in other disciplines.

My second trip was to Albuquerque, New Mexico to meet with Eric Haskins. Eric had an idea to discuss and is working on a patent, so it’s top secret for now! We also discussed BrickStainable and similar to Rizal, Eric appreciated the creativity that the competition spurred. He loved that it allowed participants the opportunity to look at the use of clay brick in specific projects for use in energy efficiency.

On my tour of Albuquerque I noticed that the brick buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries are still standing and still as beautiful as when they were first built, but for some reason, today’s architects have abandoned brick in favor of other materials. I certainly hope this shift isn’t permanent because after my conversations with these two competition winners I’m more confident than ever that the applications for clay brick as a “green” building material are abundant.