How do you comply with NEC receptacle requirements in row homes with brick walls?
I see two options. What I see in the US quite a bit is instead of running the plastic channels on the wall surface, people will use steel conduit. It gives kind of a rustic/industrial look. Receptacles would then be mounted in steel boxes on the wall surface as well.



What is typical in Germany, where most walls are block and plaster, is that grooves are cut into the plaster, conduit laid into the grooves, and then the whole thing gets covered with plaster again. There are specific tools for this called wall chasers, they have a set of blades kind of like a dado set that let you cut a groove into the plaster. This would obviously be more work and much more messy than the first option. In addition to cutting the channel for the conduit, you would of course also need to chisel out holes for the boxes that would probably go through both the plaster and partially into the brick.
As Harper points out, in the US, it is probably required by code to use conduit, and either way, it would be common sense to do so for protection of the cable, as well as future replacement.