4^th Brick Award

International Brick Award

Brick is not just an architectural material, brick is a culture. (Faramarz Parsi)

Due to the widespread use of bricks in the past, and also the compatibility of this material with Iran’s climates and microclimates, the National Brick Award the first round of which was held back in February 2020, was established as an independent event in the contemporary architecture of Iran by Honar-e Memari Institute so as to propagate and raise awareness about the use of brick, alerting employers, architects, related officials, as well as other people involved in the field.

When taking into account the Persians’ above 10-thousand-year old history, civilization, art, and architecture, one cannot help noticing the use of adobe and bricks in historical monuments and architectural masterpieces of Iran, for instance, the Dome of Soltaniyeh, the largest brick dome in the world. After successfully holding three editions of the National Brick Award in the contemporary architecture of Iran, it was decided that from 2023, which marks the 4^th edition of this award, the event should be held on an international scale, due to the significance of this architectural element as a sustainable, unrivaled, accessible, and eco-friendly material, offering a chance to all architects and interior designers to be convened together.  

Due to its unique traits, features, and potentials, brick can put forward various components to challenge the participants of this award; ranging from the challenges involved in the structural and formal role of brick to the creativity integrated in a new view to ecological and sustainable architecture as well as returning the materials to nature and reusing them.

Though above all else, we should note that the main goal of such a competition is “the propagation of the use of brick in the architecture of today and tomorrow.” Brick will remain a part of our architecture provided that it can meet our needs of the present and the future, which in turn necessitates keeping up with the technology of the age. All throughout history, the evolution of brick has been intertwined with the development of architecture, though unfortunately at a certain point in time with the emergence of metal and concrete, the use of brick got diminished, hence fewer people tried to incorporate the unique characteristics of brick to create innovative works.

This award prioritizes “innovation” in technique or creativity in the use of brick, provided that they have appropriate scientific grounds and logical thinking; however, in projects where all parts (structure, ornaments, determiners of spatial proportions, module, texture, color, etc.) incorporate brick as the principal element, without using it merely as a cover and facade, the judges will undoubtedly pay special attention to such projects.

Therefore, we humbly extend an invitation to architects and interior designers from Iran and the whole world to attend this event.

Jury Panel

• Artur Omid Azeri
• Faramarz Parsi
• Reza Abedini
• Karlos Kevedo Roxas, spain
• Alireza Mashhadi Mirza
• Ali Nemati
• Sheyda Norouzzadeh, respected president of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s Young Architects Association

:Scientific teachers

• Artur Omid Azeri
• Faramarz Parsi
• Mohsen Norozvand

Criteria for Assessment

• The use of brick as a structural element, ornaments, determiner of spatial proportions, module, texture, color, etc.
• Innovation of technique or creativity in the use of brick with scientific grounds and logical thinking
• Scale of influence and impact
• Simplest, most pragmatic, and prettiest response (strategy of posing the best questions with the best answers)
• Attention to the concept of authenticity in architecture
• Pure beauty, with no redundancies and superfluities
• Spatial techniques and qualities
• Maximum interaction between the project and the plan site as well as the project platform
• Attention to nature and maximum effort to conserve it
• Raising the per capita of green space via the project
• Innovation in taking advantage of international precedents of new technologies in the use of brick
• Attention to humanitarian architecture (regard to civil rights, creating peace in the environment and among people, designing pavements, roofs, and public facades which are in harmony with the environment)
• Attention to the rules of sustainability, and the use of smart building systems, cutting down on energy consumption
• Special attention to the relevance and interaction of architecture, interior design, and green space of the project (interior, exterior, closed, open, and semi-open quarters)
• Economicality of the design
• Pragmatic outlook to brick; not merely as a material used like a shell on the facade.
• As explained in the first part, the more incorporated brick is in different segments of the projects such as the structure, ornaments, proportions, texture, color, etc., the higher a score the project will earn.

Categories

Only executed projects are allowed to participate in this event.

Residential (townhouses or apartments)

Public spaces (offices, commercial, industrial, cultural and sports, educational, religious, treatment, etc.)

Interior design (in all categories)

Critical and descriptive articles on the use of brick

Awards in All Categories

• Receiving a plaque of appreciation from the event’s secretariat for the first to third place winners of each category
• Publishing the works of first to third place winners as well as honorees of each category in Honar-e Memari Quarterly
• Publishing the works of first to third place winners on Honar-e Memari online encyclopedia as well as other social media pages of Honar-e Memari

General Regulations

• All architects, architecture firms, consultant engineers, designers, students, etc. from Iran and the whole world are allowed to participate free of charge in each category of the award, either simultaneously, individually, or collectively.
• Signing up and submitting works is solely possible through filling out the online registration form at www.aoa.ir. To upload the project sheets, a maximum of ten 50*70 pages in landscape orientation and a single pdf file format of a maximum of 20 megabytes is acceptable, accompanied with the project’s design concept text on the sheets.
• It is also requested that high quality raw files of images, phases, plans, diagrams, etc. be uploaded simultaneously and sent to aoaholding@gmail.com. These documents will be needed when announcing the selected works on the Honar-e Memari e-zine and encyclopedia.
• Immediate and extended families of managers, scientific and executive secretaries, judges, and their firm partners are not permitted to participate in this event.
• The judges of other awards and competitions held by Honar-e Memari are not banned from participating in this event.
• The participant holds sole responsibility for proving all intellectual and legal properties of the works and images.
• Honar-e Memari Institute reserves the right to print and publish the projects (film, print, online) by inscribing the name of the designer and the photographer.
• Please absolutely avoid mentioning the names of architects, designers, or architecture firms in the sheets and articles. 
• Submitted documents will by no means be retrieved.
• As per the jury’s opinion, and the nature and essence of the award, which is the elevation of architecture and interior design, in order to maintain the quality of this award, in case a project does not meet the required standards of a category, the given category may have no winner and highest rank.  

Timetable

Deadline for submission of works: 4 oct 2023

ATTN: The deadline for the submission of works will not be extended.

Host: Honar-e Memari Quarterly

Contact Us

Shahriar Khanizad, event manager: +989123446870