Patterns in Brick: The Spread of Brick Use Between 1150 and 1550 in The Netherlands

This chapter explores the rise of brick as a construction material during the Middle Ages in the Netherlands. An analysis was carried out on three data sets: brick tower houses, brick city walls, and brick houses. Dating was based on archaeological and historical sources, instead of brick dimensions. The analysis reveals that each building category displays its own dynamic regarding the use of brick. At the same time, three main general phases can be distinguished in the use of brick: an introductory phase (c. 1250), a growth phase (c. 1250–1400), and a stabilization phase (after 1400). It appears that brick building was originally the preserve of a small group of people belonging to the highest strata of society, such as the Count of Holland. Brick was then later used as a construction material by the lower elites, such as ministeriales and the gentry, often to emphasize their own status. The construction of the first city walls in the Netherlands can also be linked to the nobility. In cities, the use of brick in house building became common in the fourteenth century. Here, too, we can see a shift, from the urban elites to the rich and then to the middle classes. New brick tower houses and city walls do not appear anymore after the mid-sixteenth century, even though brick was still in wide use for urban construction.