concrete... beautifully cast

Concrete is one of the defining materials of modern architecture.  The advance in steel technology and, specifically to concrete, reinforcing steel spawned a new age in architectural form and aesthetics.  The early masters like Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright redefined architecture for the 20th Century and beyond.  Such masterpieces as Wright's Falling Water and Louis Kahn's Salk Institute have inspired generations of designers since their inception.  Kahn's masterful manipulation of the concrete medium has shown us that this building material can be so much more than a utilitarian element (for pictures follow the links).


The beauty of concrete as a building material is the dual character of being a man-made  construct, but having some of the same natural characteristics of a material like wood or stone.  Concrete has a degree of natural variance in its composition and color that gives it a more natural quality, than add to this the ability to transfer any texture from the concrete form to the finish surface of your wall and you have a system that can vary widely in its aesthetic appearance.  Concrete also has the ability to contrast with almost any building material; of course care should be taken to not just assume any two materials are meant to be used together.  You can see in the examples provide in this post that many great architects have used concrete to an exceptional degree to express form, light, and material.

Concrete does not conform to the siding definition that has been the topic of our current series of posts. However, as a wall system it has some similar characteristics to dimensional stone and brick mass wall systems that we have already discussed. A concrete wall has great thermal mass qualities, as well as extremely useful structural properties. Steel reinforced concrete walls and floors can be made fairly thin and cost effective wall systems, and concrete also provides superior acoustical control. Any concrete wall exposed to the elements will need to be designed sufficiently thick in order to control moisture infiltration and still may require waterproofing on the interior. There are complex system alternatives to pure poured in place concrete such as sandwich panel walls. However, for most residential construction that opts for exposed concrete walls, these systems are not frequently used. Also, one of the real downside to any mass wall system is that if is essentially a barrier wall and will require maintenance to ensure that any joints in the wall are sealed with sealant, and that the integrity of the sealant is still sound.