The Romans made concrete with sand, volcanic ash and hydrated lime, employing it in such venerable and architecturally significant edifices as the Pantheon in Rome circa 126AD. 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. The use of concrete has taken on new dimensions largely because of the inventiveness of a number of engineers or architects who followed in the footsteps of people like Freyssinet and Maillart. This Taschen edition 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 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. Other favourites include Breeze in Tokyo, Casa Ventura in Monterey, Sunset Chapel Acapulco, Sliced Porosity Block Chengdu, Jubilee Church Rome, Bicentennial Civic Centre and the Contemporary Art Centre Cordoba, and the San Nicola Stadium in Bari among them, all photographed in magnificent colour, with full details of the architects, and architectural drawings in many cases. With a dreamlike quality, futuristic curves and straight lines and use of landscaping and interior design, this is a surprising study. Text in English, French and German. Packed with colour photos, 14 x 19.5cm, 624 pages. New from Taschen.
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