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Concrete and Culture : A Material History by Adrian Forty (2016, Trade Paperback)

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For each person on the planet, nearly three tons of concrete are produced every year.

About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherReaktion Books, The Limited

ISBN-101780236360

ISBN-139781780236360

eBay Product ID (ePID)237793875

Product Key Features

Number of Pages304 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameConcrete and Culture : a Material History

SubjectConstruction / General, Materials Science / General, General, History / General

Publication Year2016

TypeTextbook

AuthorAdrian Forty

Subject AreaTechnology & Engineering, Architecture

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.8 in

Item Weight16 Oz

Item Length8.7 in

Item Width6.8 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

ReviewsForty offers a historical account of how concrete has played a part in humans' relationship to their physical surroundings and the global consequences. By taking into account the role concrete has played in areas like politics, literature, cinema, and sustainability, he gives readers a new viewpoint about this material., This erudite, insightful and wide-ranging study takes the field of material history in new directions. By focusing on concrete--the ubiquitous marker of modernity--we are taken through a labyrinth of intersecting cultural and political developments that range across architecture, cinema, photography, planning, and a host of other fields., Fascinating. . . . Forty shows in arresting detail that constructing in reinforced concrete was no less industrialized, with the companies that had patented reinforced concrete systems, and their desk-bound engineers, orchestrating events on faraway sites., "Forty admits that he initially saw Concrete and Culture as an 'entertainment', an enjoyable project that allowed him to travel globally, but that he ended up grappling with a set of problems that were both intellectually difficult and full of rich cultural associations. Taking on a topic that has for the most part--until very recently--been the subject of technical literature, he again shows us a new way of looking at modernity, via one of its most characteristic material manifestations." , This book fully succeeds in portraying the most emblematic material of modern culture. Concrete is seemingly condemned to transformations, easily slipping into the role of timber or stone, with no clear identity of its own. With his engaging scholarship, Adrian Forty takes us beyond the merely concrete, showing a material that does not fit into pre-cast categories, as a projection screen of Japanese, Brazilian or Swiss identities, of fears and pleasures, a source of dislike and fascination since its invention., Forty admits that he initially saw Concrete and Culture as an 'entertainment', an enjoyable project that allowed him to travel globally, but that he ended up grappling with a set of problems that were both intellectually difficult and full of rich cultural associations. Taking on a topic that has for the most part--until very recently--been the subject of technical literature, he again shows us a new way of looking at modernity, via one of its most characteristic material manifestations.

Dewey Edition23

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal721.0445

Table Of ContentIntroduction 1. Mud and Modernity 2. Natural or Unnatural 3. A Medium without a History 4. The Geopolitics of Concrete 5. Politics 6. Heaven and Earth 7. Memory or Oblivion 8. Concrete and Labour 9. Concrete and Photography 10. A Concrete Renaissance References Select Bibliography Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements Index

SynopsisConcrete 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., Almost three tons of concrete are produced each year for every person on the planet; only water is consumed more per head of population. Now used almost universally in modern construction, concrete polarizes opinion: provoking intense loathing and fervent passion in others. Concrete and Culture breaks new ground by charting concrete's effects on culture since its reinvention in the modern period, examining the ways it has changed our understanding of nature, of time and of materiality. This book discusses architects' responses to and uses of concrete while also taking into account the role it has played in politics, literature, cinema and labour relations, as well as in present day arguments about sustainability.

LC Classification NumberTA439.F6 2016