These Wavy Fences Called ‘Crinkle Crankle Walls’ Actually Use FEWER Bricks Than a Straight Wall

While a straight wall needs at least two layers of bricks to make it sturdy, for a wavy wall one is enough thanks to the arch support provided by the waves.

Brick walls are usually straight and, well, quite boring. Unless they are wavy, for example. But wavy walls aren’t only cool because they aren’t boring.

A crinkle crankle wall – also known as a crinkum crankum, sinusoidal, serpentine, ribbon or wavy wall – is an unusual type of structural or garden wall built in a serpentine shape with alternating curves. They were originally used in Ancient Egypt, and today are typically found in Suffolk in England (but also elsewhere).

The expression “crinkle crankle” comes from a word meaning “zigzag” in an ancient Suffolk dialect. It is an ablaut reduplication (an alternation in the vowels of related word forms) which stands for something with bends and turns.

But regardless of what they are called, these wavy walls all serve two purposes – being attractive and requiring fewer materials to build.

The alternate convex and concave curves in crinkle crankle walls provide extra stability, helping them to withstand lateral forces such as wind and seismic forces. So, these walls are stronger than a straight wall of the same thickness of bricks, without the need for buttresses or a second brick layer. For this reason, a lot less bricks are needed for their construction.

Their usefulness and beauty was noted by the builders of some of America’s early buildings, such as the University of Virginia, founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson actually admired wavy walls, so he requested that they be included in the university’s design. But his decision wasn’t only due to the aesthetic appeal – of course, they were also much less expensive to construct. According to experts, about 25 percent fewer bricks were needed to build the walls this way – a significant saving in time, labor, and materials.

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Today, unfortunately, crinkle crankle are hardly built anymore. According to Gary Porter of the Masonry Advisory Council in America, this construction method requires more time for bricklayers to build, and today more than ever, time is money.

What a shame…

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4