The Rostov brick plant, which produces hand-molded bricks "Donskiye Zori", which we recently talked about, is expanding its range: recently the plant began production of a collection called "Usadba", which meets modern Qbricks quality standards.
For firing bricks of the "manor" collection, manufacturers use Hoffmann's multi-chamber ring kilns. These ovens, invented in Germany one hundred and fifty years ago, were widely used until the transition to conveyor tunnel ovens, and then faded into the background as requiring more manual work. Now Hoffmann stoves are again popular: they are powered by almost any fuel, they can save heat, but their main advantage, which is important for modern architects who are in love with the nuances of vintage retro, is that the temperature in such stoves constantly changes, which makes it possible to achieve a unique variety of shades of color, texture and man-made quality, of course, while maintaining compliance with all modern standards. In addition, the production becomes flexible and allows you to change the parameters of the brick, producing small, piece lots for a specific project and avoiding repetitions.
The collection started with the release of five test series of long facing bricks, size 490x90x37 cm. The elongated format is able to give facades a special texture, reminiscent not so much of manor houses, as a rule, of ordinary block bricks, but of striped masonry made of Roman plinths, what else more intriguing. However, the format chosen now is “just a demonstration of production capabilities, and any element of the facade can be produced according to the architect’s patterns, so there are no restrictions for the architect’s imagination,” emphasizes the head of the distributor company Dmitry Samylin.
By the way, we note that the appearance of the estate series expands the cultural context of the plant's products. If before the names of the collections appealed to the steppe and stanitsa themes predictable for Rostov-on-Don, now the manufacturers emphasize the breadth of views and ambitions. One involuntarily thinks about the manor brick as a more serious phenomenon. Central Russian manor houses, I must say, were built for a long time from wood covered with shingles and plaster, and if a manor house was built of bricks, then it was already a palace, as, for example, majestic even in ruins and attributed to Matvey Fedorovich Kazakov, the chief architect of Moscow two hundred years ago, a house in Petrovsky-Alabin near Moscow, a free replica of the palladium Villa-Rotunda: its roof has already collapsed, and in the center of the house there is a crater as from an explosion, but everything is standing, beautiful in desolation. Russian manor houses began to be built everywhere of brick in the middle of the 19th century - about the same time that the Hoffmann oven was invented, and these were no longer Palladian villas, but pseudo-Gothic castles. Gothic style, when there is no stone at hand, loves brick and knows how to use it, so it is not surprising that among the names of the trial series of the "estate" brick of the Rostov plant there are Marfino and Muromtsevo. But a few words about the prototype estates: the collections are called Muromtsevo, Marfino, Kryokshino, Borodino and Velegozh.
If we talk about Gothic, then the house of Count Vladimir Semenovich Khrapovitsky in Muromtsevo is a perfect castle. Built under the impression of the Count's French trip on the project. The brick castle was, however, covered with plaster, imitating the French - and therefore stone, Gothic. So the Muromtsevo series is a solid brick of a noble brown-gray shade with a corrugated surface, compressive strength of 300 kg s / cm2 and frost resistance F100 - the latter means that it can withstand up to one hundred freeze and thaw cycles.
Brick of the "Kryokshino" series differs from brick "Muromtsevo" in that it undergoes a reduction firing during which scale is formed in the ceramics, due to which a patina of dark spots appears on the surface.
Another line of long bricks of the trial "estate" series - a more restrained gray shade than that of "Muromtsev", is called "Borodino": it is just as conditional as a reference to certain manor houses, and to a modern person, probably to a greater extent will remind you of the "Hussar Ballad" than, let us say, of the Spaso-Borodino Monastery. The name is iconic, and the brick is almost monochrome, dark, smoky, as befits either battlefields or the smoke of the fatherland - for those who in such cases think about the meaning of the name. However, it is possible that this particular romantic shade will be the most popular due to its articulated patina, burning stains on its surface.
The series "Marfino" and "Velegozh" are also a couple. It must be said that located close to Moscow, but since Soviet times, given to the military sanatorium Marfino, is a place no less, and perhaps more famous than Muromtsevo Khrapovitsky. The house, familiar to us from movies, was built according to the project of the famous master of pseudo-Gothic Mikhail Dormidontovich Bykovsky, and this is one of the first manor "castles" in the vicinity of Moscow (formerly only the imperial fun in Alexandria at Petrodvorets).
In a word, the brick of the "Marfino" series is also corrugated, but light red, with the same parameters of strength and frost resistance, and "Velegozh" differs from it by the restoration firing that adds patina.
The names of the brick rulers are, as everyone knows, conditional: nothing more than a pleasant addition to the product. In this case, it must be admitted that the names fit their series quite accurately: indeed, the house of Marfino is positive red and white, the castle of Muromtsevo is grayish and brooding. Velegozh with the house of the artist Polenov, built according to his own sketch near Tarusa, and Kryokshino of the anglophile Vasily Alexandrovich Pashkov near Narofominsk, expand the idea of typology: these houses are rather small cottages, not palaces.
However, all these prototypes are united not only by typological diversity, but also by a distinct Westernism, a fascination with Gothic, right up to the attempt to literally transfer Europe here. Even then, in the 19th century, Gothic was a serious dress-up game - monumental decorations that made you feel like you were not here. The same hobby is typical for modern palaces and cottage villages under construction near Moscow, with their multi-layered nostalgia for Europe, and for history, and for the romance of the 19th century, so that the collections of bricks with their subtext of manor castles and Anglophile cottages and French maison de campagne turned out to be targeted: it is clear where, how and why they need to be used. Matryoshka nostalgia on construction sites near Moscow is not always molded into a perfect shape. So, it is possible that the right brick will help you achieve the desired result.
The second, pleasant news for architects and customers, from the Kirill company and the Donskiye Zori plant: the Stanitsa collection of bricks has been expanded with a new series of Uzorny bricks, based on the use of restorative firing technology, which allows to achieve a greater variety of colors than usual.
Another surprise from manufacturers that is sure to quickly catch on to future homeowners. At the request of the customer, all bricks can be branded - a logo or an inscription (name - Alice, Vladimir, Daria, Matvey; wish - health, love, happiness).
You can immortalize a craftsman, architect, builder, or the first owner of a house. As you know, old brick factories branded their products, this was both advertising and responsibility for quality. Now it is interesting to find these prints by looking through the binoculars at the firewalls of Moscow income-earners, or picking up fragments in those very estates. A modern brand on a brick can be anything, but it also adds interest to the game, allows you to get away from thoughts about the ubiquitous typical construction devoid of individuality. Fashionable passion for vintage - it comes from the desire of people, one way or another playing history, to find peace, and possibly themselves. Why else write names on bricks?
