 The use of bricks in southern and western Germany, for example, can be traced back to traditions already described by the Roman architect Vitruvius.In the British Isles, the introduction of Roman brick by the ancient Romans was followed by a 600–700 year gap in major brick production.Concrete quickly supplanted brick as the primary building material, and more daring buildings soon followed, with great pillars supporting broad arches and domes rather than dense lines of columns suspending flat architraves.