Concrete and Culture: A Material History

by Adrian Forty

Concrete has been used in arches, vaults, and domes dating as far back as the Roman Empire. Today, it is everywhere—in our roads, bridges, sidewalks, walls, and architecture. For each person on the planet, nearly three tons of concrete are produced every year. Used almost universally in modern construction, concrete has become a polarizing material that provokes intense loathing in some and fervent passion in others.
            Focusing on concrete’s effects on culture rather than its technical properties, Concrete and Culture examines the ways concrete has changed our understanding of nature, of time, and even of material. Adrian Forty concentrates not only on architects’ responses to concrete, but also takes into account the role concrete has played in politics, literature, cinema, labor-relations, and arguments about sustainability. Covering Europe, North and South America, and the Far East, Forty examines the degree that concrete has been responsible for modernist uniformity and the debates engendered by it. The first book to reflect on the global consequences of concrete, Concrete and Culture offers a new way to look at our environment over the past century.
 

Genres: Architecture, History, Nonfiction, Art, Design, Cities, Microhistory

335 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 2012

About the author

Adrian Forty is Professor of Architectural History at The Bartlett, the Faculty of the Built Environment at University College London. He is the Programme Director of the MSc programme in Architectural History.

In 2003, he was awarded the Sir Misha Black Award for Innovation in Design Education.

Forty's main interest is in architecture's role in societies and cultural contexts. His research includes work on the design of consumer goods; on language and architecture; and on architecture, collective memory, and forgetting. As of lately, he is concerned with the history, aesthetics, and cultural significance of concrete as a construction material.

Reviews

[path · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing about concrete as both a medium and expression of modernity and postmodernism is a big task,  but this book pulls it off.  The chapters on the relationship between concrete and national politics and cultural aesthetics are so interesting at explaining differences in architectural uses of reinforced concrete.  But it's the chapters on concrete as a medium of expression,  like paints for an artist or words for a poet, where the author really captures something special.  Those chapters are fascinating and have changed how I look at the ubiquitous surfaces and structures of poured concrete around me

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is far more than an architectural history. Concrete is investigated as a medium, a medium for modernity. While recognizing the critiques of concrete - think about the ugliness a multi-level car park - this book recognizes the capacity of concrete to be brutal, lasting, unforgiving and steadfast. This is an outstanding history that shows how meaning transforms and material history is created.

[Habib Rohy]

thanks for site