Concrete The most exciting projects behind the contemporary concrete trend Concrete? That characterless stuff of parking lots or Communist tower blocks, right? Well, yes. And no. Concrete is actually a name applied to a remarkably wide range of building substances, and, when properly handled, is one of the noble materials of contemporary architecture . A kind of “liquid stone” at the outset, it is malleable, durable, and capable of prodigious feats of engineering.
This two-volume book highlights the best work done in concrete of recent years. It includes such stars as Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron , and Steven Holl , but also surprising new architects like the Russians SPEECH , and rising stars of the international scene like Rudy Ricciotti from France, as well as artists such as James Turrell , who turned the famous concrete spiral of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim in New York into the setting of one of his most remarkable pieces. Text in English, French, and German