3. Juni 2012 - New Ceramics

ARCHITECTURE
top A light Kolumba, K91, was used for this villa, designed by Mix
architectuur in Breda, the netherlands.
middle The Kolumba range consists of hand-made, horizontal architectural
ceramics for brickwork and paving.
below After the bricks have been moulded, they are left to dry for three
days. During this process, each brick loses enough liquid to fill a wine
bottle. The hole in the brick helps it to dry in the middle.
Made by hand
The unique Kolumba that Petersen has been producing
for the last eight years is hand-made in accordance with
centuries-old craft traditions. After processing, the clay is
pressed into a wooden mould, then dried and fired. By using
different types of clay and firing them at different temperatures,
the bricks are infused with a variety of textures
and beautiful shades.
The standard format for Kolumba is 528 x 108 x 37
mm, but it is also available in custom sizes. Kolumba is
available in 28 standard variants, though the brickworks
also tries to comply with all requests for special colours
or surfaces.
Kolumba was jointly developed in 2002 by Petersen
Tegl and the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, who wanted a
Roman-looking brick for the Kolumba Museum in Cologne.
It is now used in construction projects all over the world.
The Royal Theatre Playhouse on the Copenhagen waterfront
is the largest Kolumba-built edifice in Denmark to
date. The playhouse was designed by the architects Lundgaard
& Tranberg, who stipulated very specific requirements
for their building materials. The architects travelled
52 NEW CERAMICS MAY / JUnE 2012