14. Brick

How to lay bricks

Two pieces of advice from teachers in undergrad architecture schools:

1. If you want to work out your forearms, apprentice with a brick mason over the summer
2. If you want a lucrative profession skip architecture and become a mason specializing in butter joints – the thin mortar joints that most pre-modern architecture uses for decorative brick. That type of work (mostly restoration work) was said to pay well.