The digital technology represents a force for innovation in various fields and disciplines, including architecture. Its impact has extended to the modernization of traditional systems associated with building culture and materials. In the local context, brick construction is the most memorable traditional construction system, through its connection to collective memory and historical aspects, as shown in the study entitled "Development of brick architecture - The transformation in accordance with contemporary digital technology," elaborated by the School of Engineering, Taylor’s University, and recently published by the Journal of Engineering Science and Technology, which analyzed the transformations of brick production technology.

The purpose of the research

In accordance with this, the research was directed towards this material and its traditional system in the light of technological development and its reflection on what we call "digital bricks" in contemporary architecture. Accordingly, the research purpose was determined as:

Exploring how contemporary digital architecture treats brick materials. To achieve the research purpose, the research adopted a descriptive analytical approach, as well as a series of procedural steps:

-The first referred to theoretical aspects by discussing technological development and its impact on the development of architecture and brick construction systems.

-The second was to build a theoretical framework for reflecting the transformations of digital bricks in contemporary architecture.

-And the third step was practical study by analyzing a number of projects approved for bricks as building material in its developed form according to the vision of digital technology, and the last procedural step (the fourth) was obtaining the results and conclusions.

Accordingly, digital technology has been able to develop traditional systems, and the research identified some of its impact on traditional constructions, which has changed the behavior of bricks and its aesthetic values.

This impact has extended to the technique of implementing new bricks, transforming the material into a center of creativity on multiple levels, contributing to the improvement, development, and efficiency of this material as well as to the ranges of creativity and the creation of shapes and configurations.

The research also reached the characteristics of the developed brick construction system, which were innovation, novelty, uniqueness, evoking historical reference - far from tradition and stereotypes - and the emphasis on creativity, excellence, and quality.

Modifying concepts

The digital revolution has replaced many traditional concepts in architecture, through the exchange of construction materials and their management. One of these materials is bricks, which are traditional materials present since ancient times.

On the other hand, the digital revolution has faced various challenges, one of the most important being the view towards traditional materials that connect with the identity of traditional civilizations, local contexts, and cultural values.

In the context of the duality of tradition, innovation, and modernity, many questions arise about the impact of technological development and its reflection on the development of traditional construction systems and materials, including brick, as a traditional material.

This issue directs the research purpose towards exploring how contemporary digital architecture deals with bricks. To achieve this purpose, the research adopted an analytical and descriptive methodology that included four procedural steps:

-The first aimed at theoretical aspects referring to the impact of digital technology on traditional construction systems and brick construction - as a special case - then discussed similarities and convergences between brick construction and digital parametric modeling.

Then, it discussed how digital technology treats bricks, transforming and developing them to be a material compatible with contemporary technology and the levels of this development in the architectural construction process.

-The second procedural step was to build a theoretical framework for the aspects of reflecting digital bricks in contemporary architecture, by investing in scientific knowledge obtained from the previous procedural stage and by analyzing a number of specialized studies.

-The research moved on to practical study by analyzing the number of projects, then

-It moved to the final procedural stage, which was obtaining the results and conclusions.

The effect of digital technology

Current digital technology guides the architectural construction process and its impact on building materials. The major effect is the convergence of the technology modeling method with brick wall construction, which is based on modules.

The digital technology approach with bricks as a building material admits that digital technology is based on modeling the internal elements that make up the total system and on that convergence of brick, as a construction material - the basic formative unit of the modeling process, where the brick represents a unified subunit with fixed dimensions, shape, and size creating a total system (walls), based on the relationships between brick dimensions.

In turn, the relationships represented by the method of joint connection within an organization based on the relationships between units and the assembly model in a physical form oriented in different directions, according to the design objectives, are linked to the semantic relationships with which the designer is familiar.

On the other hand, it is necessary to understand these relationships and deal with them - during design and integrate them with the official design objectives - to define the architectural entity (styles) in terms of paradigm and adjustment of geometric shapes without the need to constantly reconfigure them by drafting the basic rules for brick units. Geometry and its models, as well as its incorporation into boundary relationships, assist in the design process by limiting remodeling efforts.

Modeling the construction process

Unlike the great flexibility offered by the traditional brick construction system, due to the small size of the initial construction unit, which in turn realizes the modeling process and is carried out with it but takes a long time.

Here, digital technology strongly offers itself to remedy this aspect, in addition to the unlimited creative possibilities it offers based on a formwork system developed to model the building away from traditional paving. Many studies have presented strategies for building brick surfaces away from imitation, through what is called individual style.

In Uruguay, in the Atlántida Church, roofs with two curves were built, and walls with brick screens were built, controlling not only the bricks but rather controlling how to work with them by displacement, rotation, and making templates for whole classes and other templates for the gaps between them.

Consequently, technological orientation can be confirmed by improving the design process, by the action of the material, by modeling construction processes, and their implementation techniques, making molds for rows and the gaps between them, and frames for controlling the building as a whole.

Transformation of bricks into a contemporary material through digital activation

In the development of traditional brick construction systems, technology is directed towards the construction process in addition to brick as a basic unit in the modeling-based construction process.

The transformation into modeling, composition, and gluing (automation of the design process) and parametric design have made wide changes in the assembly of construction blocks by storing data for the coordinates of any simple body to produce new forms.

With the help of digital programs, multiple alternatives are generated where the designer manipulates the same object or component parameter to develop their use in various ways to produce creative results.

The design process in the digital environment focuses on representing the emotional dimension data of bricks, especially the patterns of light, shadow, and color related to the productive environment and the local context.

It also relies on a general methodology for translating the design experience into a suitable set of parameters that can generate the requested behaviors in the tools (BIM) (Building Information Modeling), so that all the different components of the wall are combined and act as a single entity, as a result of maintaining the definition associated with the architectural entity as a whole, and to include the experience.

The design adopts the necessary basic unit as a parametric component containing engineering relationships and deals with external rules to represent the assembly of building components, and by modifying the design, these boundary relationships will allow automatic changes to organize the assembly within the interconnected engineering structure and its components.

Therefore, the components should be designed according to their appearance and semantic relationships in their specified field so that the methodology has imposed the implementation of models on the brick walls that must be a component

-based cutting-edge technology to generate the geometry of the whole group while providing accessibility to each of the components.

These boundary relationships for generating brick models should maintain the geometric consistency of the components in the assembly. An example is the Gantenbein Vineyard Facade, designed by Gramazio and Kohler, and the building (Design Studio II), for the Southern Polytechnic State University, designed by Cooper Carry Architects with a methodology of automating the design process using the yaw technology.

Brick transformations through parameterized techniques

This development is based on the initial unit represented by redesign bricks. Within this approach, the Construction Unit maintains its properties and formal dimensions, in exchange for introducing two dependent variables:

-The first: creating a hole to place post-tensioning reinforcement inside the brick;

-The second: engineering contrast, while still retaining the ability to produce under low-tech conditions;

The manufacturing technique by adopting a unilateral rotation strategy to generate a new, geometrically complex brick based on function and outcome represents a new module called "deformed brick".

Through digital control, the rotation axis position of the rotated brick is changed, and the rotation angle modifies the amount of twist performed by the deformed brick. This is a breakthrough in using bricks by changing the logic and standards in parameters encoded in digital software using McNeel Rhinoceros and Grasshopper as a digital environment for relational modeling.

Behavioral transformation (smart brick)

A change in the structural behavior of the traditional brick system is achieved by innovating the concept of "interlocking system" to make construction more economical and faster compared to traditional construction containing connections based on changing structural behavior, such as systems like Sparlock, Meccano, Sparfil, Haener, Putra (SIB), and Hydraform, where the emphasis was on analyzing the behavior of the contact zone between bricks due to the absence of filling materials between pieces.

Dry joints are vital design parameters that need to be measured, and in light of this feature, contemporary brick wall construction is faster and requires less skilled workers, as well as improving construction capacity, performance, and cost. (Photo: Dreamstime)