‘Lakhori Bricks’ are used for decoration

I demolished my old house alotted to us during partition of the country. As desired additions and improvements of the old house were not working and required regular Maintainance expenditure. We however saved the old Lakhori bricks basically to use them as Brick Dust (Rodhi) for flooring.

Lakhori bricks stacked in a corner

The vacant plot remained unused  for a decade and was abused by the neighbors by throwing their garbage in the unused plot.

We started a brand new construction on Sep13, 2021. Our manager Pawan kumar supervised the construction. As the house is near completion, we have a plan to use the 100+years old Heritage Lakhori bricks for highlighting the walls both inside and out. These bricks with passage of time have become as strong as stones. We intend to cut them with a power saw and use the newly cut outwardly for a finished highlighted wall inside the living room.

Lakhori bricks carefully removed from old house structure.

The slim and compact Lakhori bricks became popular across pan-Indian Subcontinent/Mughal Empire, specially in North India, resulting in several variations in their dimensions as well as due to the use of lower strength local soil by poor people and higher strength clay by affluent people. Restoration architect author Anil Laul reasons that poor people used local soil to bake slimmer bricks using locally available cheaper dung cakes as fuel and richer people used higher-end thicker and bigger bricks made of higher strength clay baked in kilns using not so easily locally available more expensive coal, both methods yielded bricks of similar strength but different proportions at different economic levels of strata. 

The old wall made of Lakhori bricks

In olden days, the lower the caste, the slimmer and smaller the brick, while the higher the caste, the bigger the brick was the norm. It was not that they practiced or propagated the caste system. All that needs to be understood is that a poor person could use the local soil to burn slimmer and better bricks, using lesser fuel, to get a home that would withstand the vagaries of the elements and resist erosion and corrosion alike. In doing so, he could use even cow dung cakes as fuel for burning which would give him the desired brick. The rationale was obvious. The slimmer the brick- the lesser energy required to bake it. The higher caste could afford blending of clays and superior forms of fuel and transport produce over distances.

So we decided to use these carefully stacked material as heritage bricks in this redeveloped house so that old part of the house remains integral part of the house. Newly cut Lakhori bricks visible to the onlooker as well as to next Generation of the family. Some body in the family with architect value will certainly, in future, appreciate the idea how old material has been preserved and added to the decoration of the new house.

The new highlighted bricks will be grinded  and rubbed with wax polish to give an attractive and maintainance free look which will need no painting again and again.