Arriving on foot to the Hanson Brick factory in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, the first thing I noticed was that the bricks were all the same colour on the inside, but they had an outside layer which varied from dark brown to white. My guide later explained that at this particular factory, they make 'coated' bricks, rather than 'through-the-body' bricks. The column of extruded mixture passes through a shower of sand, which has minerals in varying proportions to produce the final colour. I'm not sure how much I like this idea, since I am trying to find out how a material is an expression of a place. In the case of Hanson Brick, the place, the quarry, is purposely suppressed for reasons of standardization and interchangeability. They are very particular about the colour of the brick, which has to exactly match sample panels which are kept at the very end of the production line- any brick that does not have the expected shade is tossed. The quarry is defin