Of all building materials in the world, brick is one of the most enduring and ubiquitous. Traces of brickmaking date back to 7500 BC and fired brick first made its appearance in about 3500 BC. Since then, the trusty brick has shown amazing resilience and remains one of the mainstays of contemporary architecture. Rooted in tradition in countries as different as China and the Netherlands, it is inexpensive, flexible in use, and can also be ecologically fabricated.

This comprehensive volume tours the world to cover the most exciting and innovative brick buildings, from Argentina to New Zealand. True to all TASCHEN architecture tomes, it includes new talents as well as established star architects such as Renzo Piano and Peter Zumthor. Featured buildings showcase the variety of brick applications across cultural, domestic, infrastructure, and leisure spaces, including the Tate Modern Switch House in London by Herzog & De Meuron, Amsterdam's Dutch Holocaust Memorial of Names by Studio Libeskind, and Mass Design Group's Maternity Waiting Village in Kasungu, Malawi.