Editorial archive · originally published January 2020
Ten notable brick and masonry works in China
This revised reference article preserves the original ten-part image set while correcting several translated names and separating verified project facts from the earlier editorial labels. It is a design review, not a ranking or a record of LOPO-supplied projects.
1Brick House, Gaochun
Project identification supported by published project record
The earlier label “Nanjing Gaochun Poet Residence” corresponds to Brick House by Zhang Lei / AZL Architects in Gaochun, Jiangsu. The published record describes two single-family houses completed during 2006–2008, using locally made brick and three façade treatments: solid fields, projecting units and perforated interlocking areas.
The four retained views make the key lesson legible without turning it into a universal prescription: one ordinary module can produce enclosure, texture, filtered openings and shadow, but each condition still needs its own structural and weathering detail.
2Fuping International Ceramic Art Museum, Shaanxi
Original 2020 attribution retained with a verification boundary
The January 2020 article named “Shaanxi Fuping International Ceramic Art Museum” and attributed it to Liu Kecheng. This review retains that archive label and all four images, but does not add a completion year, pavilion identity or structural claim because a sufficiently clear primary project record was not located.
The photographs show how repeated masonry courses can define vaults, circular openings and exhibition rooms. They do not by themselves establish the load path, reinforcement, fire strategy or the identity of every pavilion within the wider museum complex.
3Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing
Corrected identification; official public source
The old translated label “Beijing Qingshui Guild Hall” does not match the retained image set. The entrance and interiors correspond to Beijing’s Red Brick Art Museum, designed by Dong Yugan and opened in 2014. The architecture uses brick across walls, floors, vaults, openings and landscape elements.
For designers, the useful reference is the continuity of the module across different spatial conditions. That visual continuity should not be read as proof that every element uses the same structural or moisture-control detail.
4Shanghai Xintiandi
Place and redevelopment character verified
The original “Xintiandi Series” label is retained more precisely as Shanghai Xintiandi. Its official project page describes a city-core redevelopment integrating early twentieth-century Shikumen architecture with contemporary uses. The two archive views therefore belong in a discussion of conservation, reconstruction and adaptive urban reuse—not as evidence of one new-build brick system.
The design question here is how masonry scale, alleys, gateways and mixed-age fabric can remain legible while uses change. The images alone do not document which walls are original, rebuilt or newly interpreted.
5Ningbo Museum
Designer and opening date verified by the museum
The old article incorrectly rendered the designer as “Wang Ye.” Ningbo Museum’s official profile identifies Wang Shu as the architect and states that the museum opened on 5 December 2008. It also describes exterior walls incorporating old tiles alongside cement-formed elements.
The retained image shows a layered, irregular masonry surface at building scale. It is a strong material-memory reference, but it should not be reduced to a generic claim about “green brick” or copied without studying the original construction documentation.
6Shanghai Symphony Hall
Name, design team and opening year verified
The former wording “Isaki New” was a mistranslation. The Shanghai municipal profile says Shanghai Symphony Hall opened in 2014 and was designed by architect Arata Isozaki with acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota.
The photograph is useful for reading solid and glazed volumes, warm-toned exterior planes and the hall’s civic approach. It cannot verify the earlier article’s specific “dry-hanging curtain wall brick” description, so that construction claim has been removed.
7Nanjing Student Center
Official architect record; material classification corrected
Preston Scott Cohen Inc’s project record identifies the Nanjing University building, credits Preston Scott Cohen Inc as design architect and Zhang Lei Studio as architect of record, and dates construction to 2008–2009. Crucially, that record describes poured-in-place concrete construction.
This entry is therefore retained as part of the historical ten-image editorial set, not presented as a verified brick building. Its value here is methodological: surface color or a distant photograph is not enough to classify a façade material.
8Pavilion 4, Shanghai Expo site
Published project identification
The older “Shanghai World Expo Hall 4” label aligns with Pavilion 4 by HMA Architects & Designers, published as a 2010 Shanghai project adapting a 1970s industrial factory into an exhibition center. This is best read as an adaptive-reuse and envelope-composition case, rather than a generic new masonry building.
The retained vertical view shows a sawtooth sequence of brick-toned façade planes. Current material specifications, supplier attribution and the exact new-versus-existing fabric must be checked against project records.
9Lanxi Curtilage, Chengdu
Project name, architect and year corrected
The original “Chengdu Lanxi Ting (Yuan Yuan)” wording has been normalized to Lanxi Curtilage. The published project record identifies Archi-Union Architects, Chengdu and 2011, and describes courtyard spaces enclosed by double masonry walls.
The archive photograph foregrounds composition at the courtyard scale: low grey-brick walls, repeated openings and a timber-framed center. It does not establish the project’s complete structural or environmental performance.
10The Great Wall
UNESCO historical boundary
The Great Wall is not one building or one uniform brick system. UNESCO’s record describes a defensive ensemble built and extended across many periods, with construction continuing through the Ming dynasty; it also distinguishes rammed-earth sections from the masonry of later periods.
Its inclusion is best treated as a historical counterpoint about repetition, repair and regional construction—not as the tenth contemporary project and not as evidence for a single material specification.
What this editorial set is useful for
- Module and pattern: bonding, relief, perforation and repetition can change how one masonry unit reads across a façade.
- Space and light: brick can frame courtyards, vaults, deep openings and filtered daylight, but each condition requires a specific assembly.
- Old and new fabric: Xintiandi and Pavilion 4 show why adaptive-reuse references must distinguish retained, rebuilt and newly added work.
- Source discipline: photographs are design prompts, not proof of architect, supplier, construction system or performance.
Continue from reference to specification
Explore LOPO’s current brick range separately from this editorial archive, review built-work imagery, or send a project brief for a material and sample discussion.