Monday, November 26, 2012

Concrete, by William Hall

Here's a late entry for our favourite shedlike book of 2012 shortlist, Concrete by William Hall, published by Phaidon. It features 180 of the finest concrete buildings around the world. Regular readers of Shedworking will be familiar with one or two of the entries such as The Truffle House and Concrete Pod but there are lots, lots more similar delights such as the Coal Silo by Eduardo Torroja (below) and  Parkhotel by Andreas Strauss (even more below)



According to William, 265 billion cubic feet of concrete are produced annually. "I conceived this book to advocate and celebrate concrete’s beauty, efficacy and its incalculable contribution to modern life," he says, pointing to iconic masterpieces such as Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, Oscar Niemeyer’s Brasília, and Tadao Ando’s Church of Light. "Without concrete our built environment and the history of architecture would be woefully bereft. It is time to reconsider concrete and its contribution to architecture."

If you think concrete buildings are rubbish, then this clever book will change your mind. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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3 comments:

  1. emma t11:06 AM

    i can't work in that hobbit tunnel

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  2. I bet you can, if you really try hard

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  3. Love the use of the concrete pipes, with a bit of clever use of earthworks, these could be 'buried' in mounds of earth to provide a natural insulation layer, providing a very hobbit like home office or kids den in the garden.

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