Bricks are not nearly as strong as you intuitively think. They do great in compression, but terrible in tension. Bricks are also terrible insulation. Real structural engineers take this into account, and thus often use wood or steel (or other materials) depending on what really matters. And of course the entire structure needs to be designed as a whole.
Unreinforced masonry is weak in tension because of the weak binding interface between the masonry unit and the mortar. The reason masonry is used in wall construction and not in, say, a suspended floor, is precisely because walls don't typically experience tensile forces. Any tensile force resulting from e.g.: wind loading on the entire structure is typically overcome by the self-weight of the masonry.
If there is a special case where tensile forces are expected, for example a retaining wall, or a mid-rise structure, or earthquake load, the engineer will specify the the masonry is reinforced with steel and then it can resist tension through the unit/mortar interface just fine.
It is a poor structural engineer who tells the architect masonry isn't an option because tension.
Can anyone confirm?
Here's a prototype: https://imgur.com/9yO28CY