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This accessible critique of urban construction reimagines city development and life in an era of unprecedented building. Exploring the proliferation of building and construction, Imrie sets out its many degrading impacts on both people and the environment. Using examples from around the world, he illustrates how construction is motivated by economic and political ideologies rather than actual need, and calls for a more sensitive, humane and nature-focused culture of construction. This compelling book calls for radical changes to city living and environments by building less, but better.
Global building and construction cultures are hard-wired to constructing too much, too badly, with major social and ecological consequences. Rob Imrie calls us to build less and to build better as a pre-requisite for enhancing welfare and well-being.
CONCRETE CITY “Armelle Choplin’s Concrete City weaves a novel and engaging analysis of urbanization by tracing the journeys of cement and people making urban life in West Africa. From post-independence high modernist ambitions to building the opportunities to make a living, the emerging transnational corridor along the West African coast provides a starting point for insights which will expand and inform understanding of both established and newly emerging urbanization processes in many different contexts.” —Jennifer Robinson, Professor of Geography, University College of London, UK “In this very innovative and superbly illustrated book, Armelle Choplin makes cement vibrant with affect, politics, economic interests and cultural meanings. She takes us to a fascinating journey along the West African urban corridor following the social life of concrete and showing how this material shapes contemporary urbanization and everyday life.” —Ola Söderström, Professor of Geography, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland Concrete City: Material Flows and Urbanization in West Africa delivers a theoretically informed, ethnographic exploration of the African urban world through the life of concrete. Emblematic of frenetic urban and capitalistic development, this material is pervasive, shaping contemporary urban landscapes and societies and their links to the global world. It stands and circulates at the heart of major financial investments, political forces and environmental debates. At the same time, it epitomises values of modernity and success, redefining social practices, forms of dwelling and living, and popular imaginaries. The book invites the reader to follow bags of cement from production plant to construction site, along the 1000-kilometre urban corridor that links Abidjan to Accra, Lomé, Cotonou and Lagos, combining the perspectives of cement tycoons, entrepreneurs and political stakeholders, but also of ordinary men and women who plan, build and dream of the Concrete City. With this innovative exploration of urban life through concrete, Armelle Choplin delivers a fascinating journey into and reflection on the sustainability of our urban futures.
In Concrete Reveries, acclaimed philosopher and cultural critic Mark Kingwell offers a thoughtful answer to Socrates’ injunction about the life worth living, using the urban experience to illustrate the dynamic between concreteness and abstraction that operates within us.Witty and authoritative, the book is an exhilarating journey through unexpected terrain.
An interdisciplinary account of the environmental history and changing landscape of New York City. In this innovative account of the urbanization of nature in New York City, Matthew Gandy explores how the raw materials of nature have been reworked to produce a "metropolitan nature" distinct from the forms of nature experienced by early settlers. The book traces five broad developments: the expansion and redefinition of public space, the construction of landscaped highways, the creation of a modern water supply system, the radical environmental politics of the barrio in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the contemporary politics of the environmental justice movement. Drawing on political economy, environmental studies, social theory, cultural theory, and architecture, Gandy shows how New York's environmental history is bound up not only with the upstate landscapes that stretch beyond the city's political boundaries but also with more distant places that reflect the nation's colonial and imperial legacies. Using the shifting meaning of nature under urbanization as a framework, he looks at how modern nature has been produced through interrelated transformations ranging from new water technologies to changing fashions in landscape design. Throughout, he considers the economic and ideological forces that underlie phenomena as diverse as the location of parks and the social stigma of dirty neighborhoods.
Imagine what the world would be like without concrete: there'd be no high-rises, no grand irrigation projects, no lettuce from southern climes in the winter, no multi-lane highways crisscrossing continents, a shortage of electricity, more mud in some places, more solitude in others. But because of the fossil fuels and other resources required to make concrete, there also would be less CO2 in the atmosphere and less dramatic climate change. In Concrete: From Ancient Origins to a Problematic Future, Soderstrom tells the story of concrete's glorious past, extravagant present, and uncertain future with careful research, lively anecdotes, and thoughtful reflection. The framework for this exploration is one the Romans--famous for concrete structures that are still strong--would understand: the four elements of Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. "[For] those of us who are thinking about, and educating for, deep cultural change, . . . for those of us that care about what it means to be good, in the deepest sense; to participants in an earth-system that is failing at human hands, in the context of recognizing the repercussions of the Anthropocene." --Laura Sewall, author of Sight and Sensibility: The Ecopsychology of Perception
Global building and construction cultures are hard-wired to constructing too much, too badly, with major social and ecological consequences. Rob Imrie calls us to build less and to build better as a pre-requisite for enhancing welfare and well-being.
Reinforced Concrete and the Modernization of American Building, 1900-1930 by Amy E. Slaton Pdf
Examining the proliferation of reinforced-concrete construction in the United States after 1900, historian Amy E. Slaton considers how scientific approaches and occupations displaced traditionally skilled labor. The technology of concrete buildings—little studied by historians of engineering, architecture, or industry—offers a remarkable case study in the modernization of American production. The use of concrete brought to construction the new procedures and priorities of mass production. These included a comprehensive application of science to commercial enterprise and vast redistributions of skills, opportunities, credit, and risk in the workplace. Reinforced concrete also changed the American landscape as building buyers embraced the architectural uniformity and simplicity to which the technology was best suited. Based on a wealth of data that includes university curricula, laboratory and company records, organizational proceedings, blueprints, and promotional materials as well as a rich body of physical evidence such as tools, instruments, building materials, and surviving reinforced-concrete buildings, this book tests the thesis that modern mass production in the United States came about not simply in answer to manufacturers' search for profits, but as a result of a complex of occupational and cultural agendas.
Concrete Ideas: Material to Shape a City is about possibilities in concrete architecture. It visually speculates, through a series of montages, drawings, and photographs, about concrete architecture's capacity as an urban catalyst, its capacity for de fining cites and for virtuosity in urban renewal. It is another iteration of speculations begun in a graduate architecture studio at the University of Toronto, which asked: given the now mainstream nanotechnologies that transform the performance of materials at the molecular level without fundamentally changing the material aesthetic, can we anticipate and provoke a change in its inherent authority, perception, and aesthetic culture? The work uses the case of Toronto with its predominant 1960s and 1970s brutalist stock and unique minus 30 °F to plus 30 °F Canadian climate to test these speculations with building projects that challenge the limits of concrete performance. With contributions from architects and thinkers such as Mark West, George Baird, Will Bruder, and Charles Waldheim among others, Concrete Ideas is meant to create a seductive argument for the reconsideration of this age-old building material as supple, light, and instrumental in the re-presentation of existing concrete "citizens.
Preservation of Historic Concrete by Paul E. Gaudette Pdf
This edition will have color illustrations. Concrete is an extraordinarily versatile building material used for utilitarian, ornamental, and monumental structures since ancient times. Composed of a mixture of sand, gravel, crushed stone, or other coarse material, bound together with lime or cement, concrete undergoes a chemical reaction and hardens when water is added. Inserting reinforcement adds tensile strength to structural concrete elements. The use of reinforcement contributes significantly to the range and size of building and structure types that can be constructed with concrete. This Brief provides an overview of the history of concrete and its popularization in the United States, surveys the principal causes and modes of concrete deterioration, and outlines approaches to repair and protection that are appropriate to historic concrete. In the context of this Brief, historic concrete is considered to be concrete used in construction of structures of historical, architectural, or engineering interest, whether those structures are old or relatively new. Other related products: Concrete Manual : A Manual for the Control of Concrete Construction, Part 1 is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/024-003-00141-4 Concrete Manual : a Manual for the Control of Concrete Construction, Part 2 is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/024-003-00176-7 Renovation & Historic Preservation resources collection can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/science-technology/construction-architecture/renovation-historic-preservation
Written by the US Army's Urban Warfare Specialist, this book is the definitive look at how urban warfare tactics have evolved providing invaluable lessons for the US and British Armies of the future. Throughout history cities have been at the center of warfare, from sieges to street-fighting, from peace-keeping to coups de mains. Sun Tzu admonished his readers of The Art of War that the lowest realization of warfare was to attack a fortified city. Indeed, although strategists have advised against it across the millennia, armies and generals have been forced nonetheless to attack and defend cities, and victory has required that they do it well. In Concrete Hell, Louis DiMarco has provided a masterful study of the brutal realities of urban warfare, of what it means to seize and hold a city literally block by block. Such a study could not be more timely. We live in an increasingly urbanizing world, a military unprepared for urban operations is unprepared for tomorrow. Di Marco masterfully studies the successes and failures of past battles in order to provide lessons for today's tacticians.
"Invisible Cities" and the Urban Imagination by Benjamin Linder Pdf
In 1972, Italo Calvino published Invisible Cities, a literary book that masterfully combines philosophy and poetry, rigid structure and free play, theoretical insight and glittering prose. The text is an extended meditation on urban life, and it continues to resonate not only among literary scholars, but among social scientists, architects, and urban planners as well. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Invisible Cities, this collection of essays serves as both an appreciation and a critical engagement. Drawing from a wide array of disciplinary perspectives and geographical contexts, this volume grapples with the theoretical, pedagogical, and political legacies of Calvino’s work. Each chapter approaches Invisible Cities not only as a novel but as a work of evocative ethnography, place-writing, and urban theory. Fifty years on, what can Calvino’s dreamlike text offer to scholars and practitioners interested in actually existing urban life?
Green Building with Concrete by Gajanan M. Sabnis Pdf
With superior fire resistance, strength, and a long service life, concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world. A sustainable material, concrete is also easily and affordably reused and rehabilitated. The first book to provide an overview of sustainability and concrete, Green Building with Concrete: Sustainable Design and Construction surveys the material’s history in the green building movement and presents state-of-the-art methodologies and best practices. From the manufacturing of cement to the rehabilitation of concrete, this comprehensive book explains how concrete can be used for sustainable design and construction. It offers insight into new technological and social developments guiding the introduction of green buildings and examines the attributes that concrete has to offer the green building movement. The text also highlights research on economic analysis—particularly life cycle costing—to provide a full picture of the economic benefits of concrete. Expert contributors from around the world offer diverse viewpoints on global sustainability. Topics covered include: Principles of sustainable design Benefits of concrete’s thermal mass Mitigation of urban heat island effects Surface runoff and the application of pervious concrete for sidewalks and parking areas Reduction of construction waste Leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) standards Emphasizing environmental impact and occupational and consumer health and safety, this book explains how to make the most of concrete in sustainable design. Written for university and concrete industry continuing education courses, it also serves as a reference for building owners and industry professionals who recognize the value of green building.
Utilizing Ready Mix Concrete and Mortar by Ravindra K. Dhir,Mukesh C. Limbachiya Pdf
Concrete will be the key material for Mankind to create the built environment of the next millennium. The requirements of this infrastructure will be both demanding, in terms of technical performance and economy, and yet be greatly varied, from architectural masterpieces to the simplest of utilities.Utilizing ready mixed concrete and mortar forms the Proceedings of the three day International Conference held during the Congress, Creating with Concrete, 6-10 September 1999, organised by the Concrete technology unit, University fo Dundee.
