UNREINFORCED BRICK MASONRY CONSTRUCTION

Bricks were first fired around 3500 BC, in Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq, one of the 

high-risk seismic areas of the world. The ziggurat temples at Eridu, possibly the world’s 

first city, have withstood not only earthquakes but also wars and invasions. From Roman 

aqueducts and public buildings to the Great Wall of China, from the domes of Islamic 

architecture to the early railway arch bridges, from the first 19thcentury American tall buildings to the 20th century nuclear power plants, bricks have been used as structural material in all applications of building and civil engineering. 

The most common place for  use of bricks worldwide throughout time is in residential 

dwellings. The shape and size of bricks can vary considerably, and similarly the mortars 

used depend on local material availability, but the basic form of construction for houses 

has minor geographical variations and has changed relatively little over time.

The worst death toll from an earthquake in the past century occurred in 1976 in China 

(T’ang Shan Province), where it is estimated that 240,000 people were killed. Most of the 

deaths were due to the collapse of brick masonry buildings

simple figure of brick masonry

http://www.world-housing.net/uploads/brick_Masonry.pdf