Qeytarieh Brick Bond
A shading bond developed with the masons, turned out of plane by twenty degrees.
The south face of the Qeytarieh building needed shade without losing the view to the city. A solid screen would have closed the apartments; a louvre would have rusted and dated. We asked whether the brick could do it alone. Turning every third header twenty degrees out of plane casts a shadow across the course below and leaves the sightline from inside untouched.
Three sample panels were built in the yard and left standing through a full summer before anything was ordered. The masons set the angle with a timber jig cut in the workshop, one jig per bay, so the work stayed fast. Mortar is raked back to deepen the shadow. From the street the wall reads solid at noon and open at six in the evening.