ABSTRACT
My aim in this chapter is to address some questions about the relationship between insurance buildings, their brands, and their broader capital, especially property, investment strategies. To do this, I review the role buildings played in the initial establishment of trust and how this began to shape the urban environment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I close by looking again at the architectural precedents Aviva's garage was following. This architectural style is stock-image Silicon Valley/Alley and in two of the largest insurtech companies, Lemonade and Hippo, it is also used as a direct expression of corporate brand values. These companies have a story to tell about insurance that is quite different to the one told by legacy insurers. Their narrative is about disruption rather than stability but in using bricks to signify brands, to consumers, and more particularly investors, they stay within the bounds of a marketing strategy that has roots in the eighteenth century.
