Fired-clay brick trends launch 2023 with whites, grays and prevailing textures—creatively layered, inset, rustic and blended for depth and detail.
Soft whites and grays continue to dominate color preferences, according to Brick Industry Association (BIA) members as shown in this brief video. Traditional reds also reemerge along with red/black combinations and defined hard edges.
Rising texture trends include brick screen walls, brick insets and exclusions, brick-within-brick elements, blending diverse patterns and textures and modern design with refurbished, rustic exteriors.
Residential trends include:
- Whites
- Grays
- Defined hard edges and mortar joints, no tumbled or soft edges
- Traditional red brick
- Reds with blacks for a Colonial appearance
- Thin brick floors
Commercial trends include:
- Whites
- Smooth grays and wire-cuts
- Black brick
- Screen wall brick in architectural applications
- Smooth face tumbled
- Multiple blended textures
- Textures within brick walls: insetting/corbelling brick within a wall or excluding brick for a much more layered appearance (also residential)
- New buildings designed to look like a rustic, refurbished warehouse
- Modern design using authentic tumbled brick for an Old World, historic surface (also residential)
- Extra texture: integrating visual texture by rotating the brick a degree, laying courses or creating a texture using brick elements and blending in various patterns using lighter colors to convey depth and detail (also residential)
- Typical match production to standard reds or buffs
- Architects substituting big format trends for smaller formats due to supply chain disruptions and labor shortages
Made from abundant natural resources, fired-clay brick is free of volatile compounds that will not burn, melt or combust.
It has tested to provide a minimum one-hour fire resistance rating by itself—regardless of backing material—as recognized by ASTM E119, Standard Test Methods for Fire Tests of Building Construction and Materials and the International Building Code (IBC).
Contributing BIA members include Acme Brick Co., The Belden Brick Company, Bowerston Shale Co., Endicott Clay Products Co., General Shale, Hebron Brick Co., Statesville Brick Co. and Whitacre Greer.
