---
title: "Building Knowledge, Brick by Brick"
date: 2022-09-21T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/building-knowledge-brick-by-brick"
section: Articles
---
# Building Knowledge, Brick by Brick

*September 21, 2022* — by [Maggie Haslam](/author/maggie-haslam)


> At Architecture Program’s Popular Wall-Building Demo, Students Get a Little Messy to Learn

*ARCH403 Brick Wall 09192022 SC 9494 1920x1080 — Master masons Jim Michalik (left) and Dave Richardson instruct architecture majors Dalia Abushi '23 and Donna Ferreira '23 Monday on Brick Day in the Architecture Building's Great Space. Abushi wears an appropriate Pink Floyd tee as she prepares to put another brick in the wall, while Ferreira laughs after spilling her mortar.*

Most students at the University of Maryland probably don’t consider what went into creating the campus’s iconic red brick buildings. But for one afternoon each fall, that afterthought becomes an assignment as fledgling architects sling mud and level rows of brick.

Brick Day is a crash course in the highly skilled art of bricklaying, where students swap T-squares for trowels to build an 11-foot wall in the Architecture Building’s cavernous Great Space. A program tradition that draws throngs of spectators each year, it’s also a tangible connection between the designs students conceive on paper and the craft that brings them to life.

“We want the students to understand not just how to make something look good but how to make it actually work,” said architecture Lecturer Marcus Cross M.Arch. ’05. “Sometimes t­­­­­he best way to do that is to do things with your hands.”

\[*[Design Course Challenges Students to Craft Comfortable, Usable Chairs—Out of Cardboard](https://today.umd.edu/architecture-class-leaves-terps-on-the-edge-of-their-seats)*\]

After a short tutorial Monday on the materials and methods of brick and block construction, students tentatively grabbed a brick and slathered a short end with a viscous mortar, which has the look and feel of expired hummus. Contorting and pivoting between a wheelbarrow and the wall, they tried to replicate the intricate choreography of the master masons at Rockville-based Potomac Valley Brick and Supply (PVB), the event’s longtime sponsor.


*overhead view of students building brick wall*


*hands laying brick*




**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)


**Tags:** [Architecture](https://today.umd.edu/topic/architecture), [Student Experience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/student-experience)


**Units:** [School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation](https://today.umd.edu/topic/school-architecture-planning-and-preservation)