Photo:Stock Photosfrom Mikhail Leypounsky/Shutterstock
Sometimes a straight line isn’t best.
Take a brick wall, for instance.
Known ascrinkle crankle walls, orserpentine walls, this jot down of construction is quite popular in England.
Photo:Stock Photosfrom Mikhail Leypounsky/Shutterstock
Typically used as garden walls, their curved appearance is about more than just aesthetics.
Crinkle crankle walls actually use fewer bricks than traditional straight walls.
This is because their curved form provides enough stability so that just one layer of bricks can be used.
Photo:Stock Photosfrom Sarnia/Shutterstock
If a straight wall used the same number of bricks, it would quickly fall over without buttressing.
This would allow them to be used to grow fruit.
They’re particularly popular in Suffolk, which has twice as many examples as the rest of the UK.
Photo:Stock Photosfrom AC Manley/Shutterstock
Serpentine walls can also be found in the United States.
The most famous example is at the University of Virginia, where Thomas Jefferson incorporated them into the architecture.
Crinkle crankle walls became popular in the 18th century in the United Kingdom.
Photo:Stock Photosfrom Andriy Blokhin/Shutterstock
Photo:University of Virginia
