TOASTMASTERS SPEECH 7
BRICK WALL
OBJECTIVES (5 -7 minutes)
- Collect information about the topic from numerous sources.
- Support each point and opinion with specific facts, examples and illustrations gathered through research.
SPEECH
What do you think of when you hear the words BRICK WALL?
What do you feel and what do you sense?
For me it's nurturing and stability but I questioned my network group to find out their optinions.
In my industry research isn't always facts and figures - it's also people's perceptions with what's around them.
There were 4 main thoughts:
1) CONCEPTUAL & CREATIVE
- "Hitting a brick wall" to describe a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. When two people are encased behind their respective walls, one person needs to take the first step and step out from behind their defenses. (http://www.innerself.com/html/relationships/intimacy
- "Thick as a brick" to describe a less able person
- "He's a brick" to describe a solid, true and reliable friend
There was the odd case of surrealism with "Follow the yellow brick road" - very interesting.
2) PHYSIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES
A brick wall is a boundary that can provide a sense of security, safety and stability because, for example, it's more permanent than a see-through wooden fence.
Let's look at a prison where the walls give outsiders a sense of security and a sense of safety by containing prisoners.
I remember watching a TV programme years ago that suggested the prison structure itself provides the inmates with a sense of security because they have clear boudaries and, for repeat offenders, it becomes a second home - a safe sanctuary where they know how to react and are with like-minded people. It's their sanctuary, their norm!
Walls are often used as boundaries, from your front garden to the farmers' field to the Great Wall Of China.
Great Wall Of China = 4 million visitors each year. (www.chinahighlights.com/greatwall)
(Some people have claimed that it's the only man-made object visible to the naked eye from space)
When we look at the aspect of containment we also need to remember the horrific stories of people being blocked into a wall and left to die.
There was a ghost reported in a pub in Lancashire and when they came to undertake the renovations the developers found the body of a woman and her baby encased behind the chimney breast.
I even found a story of a car that has been entombed: (http://celebrific.com/gossip/Entombed-car-unearthed-after-40-years-2150956.html)
"A 1958 Buick has been unearthed almost 40 years after three young men walled it up in the basement of an illinois house."
3) A BEAUTIFUL & AESTHETIC MATERIAL
- Battersea Powerstation (London http://www.batterseapowerstation.org.uk/) - the largest traditional brick built building in the world.
- Tate Modern (London http://www.tate.org.uk/) - the planned extension was changed from glass to brick when brick was declared "the new cool".
4) THE TECHNICAL STUFF
Here are some sites to expand your knowledge on the technical stuff:
The Brick Development Association
The British Brick Society
How To Build A Brick Wall
Ibstock Brick Limited
For now, I'll show you how building a brick wall is like making a sandwich:
a) Start with a piece of bread + butter - build a few courses at one side of the wall and make sure it's level
b) Add a second piece of bread + butter - build a few courses at the other side of the wall and make sure it's level
c) Add the filling between the two slices - join the brick courses together with a plumb line to make sure it's level
If it's not level then the filling in your sandwich will end up on your lap and your brick wall will fall down.
It needs to be remembered that today brick is not generally used as a structural element such as to "support my designer home" and is actualy a veneer or facade with the structural wall behind it.
It's a timeless material that's available in virtually limitless sizes, shapes and colours.
It can be laid in many different ways with running or stacked bond, soldier and rowlock courses.
You could have a single vertical plane or it could be corvelled to create depth with self-supporting arches.
You can use brick for many things such as flooring, roads, ceilings, chimneys, sewers, aqueducts, planters and seating.
However you use brick, it needs to be remembered:
A brick is not just a brick
A wall is not just a wall
A house is not just a house.
I'll leave you with a quote by architect Louis Kahn:
"I asked a brick what it wanted to be and it responded - an arch."
Here are the comments that I received:
- A fascinating and very varied talk which also showed us something of your own interests.
- Good internal linking around teh sue of the word "boundaries".
- An unusual topic providing food for thought and confidently delivered. You embodied exuberance.
- This was an imaginative topic. Good fluidity between movement free delivery and referring to notes. Watch use of "now" when starting senences.
- You always bring any topic you choose to life. You have great style and presence.
- You are surreal! You took us nowhere so pleasantly! You are such a pleasure to watch.
