Concrete can do anything

It’s become one of the most revolutionary features of the construction industry. The development and use of concrete is by far the most modern and innovative source of material that first saw its rise in use in the twentieth century. Admittedly, some of that use was for the purposes of war, namely the bunkers of the Maginot line and the defences of Europe, but architects were already seeing the use of concrete beyond this and also beyond providing solid foundations. Why not create an entire building out of it?

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In combination with a steel girder to reinforce it, the ability to shape concrete into pretty much whatever shape you wanted to cast was too good an idea to pass up on for designers. Using the building skills and know-how of Concrete Gloucester specialists like  www.monstermixconcrete.co.uk the world of modern architecture seemed to be one of endless possibilities.

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Offices, housing projects, shopping centres, public works and building works for artistic endeavour and display were all undertaken. This was the world of modernity. Not all of these experiments worked out though. In many cases, the housing was declared unsafe and was replaced. Many of the large scale housing projects were found to be unpleasant to live in and the weather-stained concrete was viewed as unsightly. However, this was not the case for all of them and many are even being given listed building status.