Housing Report: Unreinforced brick masonry residential building

This housing report looks at housing typologies in Pakistan, with a focus on unreinforced brick masonry residential buildings. In Peshawar and adjoining areas (in northern Pakistan), the most popular residential construction is a single- or double-story unreinforced masonry building with 9-inch-thick, solid burnt-brick walls and a 5- to 6-inch reinforced-concrete roof slab. Sometimes, however, 4.5-inch solid brick walls are also used as load-bearing walls. The layout of these dwellings is usually regular, mostly rectangular, having horizontal dimensions in the range of 30 ft x 60 ft or 60 ft x 90 ft, etc. Building height rarely exceeds 35 ft. Wall connections at the corners are achieved through proper toothing. Lintels, approximately 6- to 9-inches deep, with a width equal to the wall thickness, are provided above openings. In a relatively engineered construction, however, the lintel beam runs throughout the perimeter. Similar residential buildings are also found in other cities of Pakistan, for example, in Islamabad and Lahore. In Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, concrete frame structures with concrete-block infill walls are most often used.