Soluzioni d’involucro innovative: HB Heatsink Brick

The ever-growing demand for housing in the world is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges of sustainable architecture of the new century. To design and build houses and buildings that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but that also promote comfort and sustainability is what Colombian architects Miguel Niño and Johanna Navarro from Sumart Diseño y Arquitectura SAS aimed to do when creating the BT Bloque Termodisipador (HB Heatsink Brick) – a clay brick designed with an irregular cross section and a large angled face that helps protect the brick from solar radiation. This allows ventilation to pass through the bricks, quickly dissipating the heat and reducing the temperature inside the building. According to the architects: “BT Bloque Termodisipador is a ceramic brick for the construction of architectural enclosures and facades, which adopts the same manufacturing process of the traditional fired clay brick, with an innovation in the design of the cross section used in the extrusion process. Its unusual shape, made up of a rectangle and an irregular scalene triangle, partially protects the brick from solar radiation and the transfer of heat.” Furthermore, their porous cellular structure allows wind to pass through the bricks and dissipate stored heat, while also reducing noise by breaking up and reflecting sound waves.