Concrete: the Gray Champion
Concrete has many facets. Once scorned as the material of Brutalism in the 60s and 70s, it can now frequently be seen in a majestic light, for example in the elegant Burj Khalifa in Dubai, or the delicate architecture of the Mucem Museum in Marseille. Concrete also plays a supporting role in our day-to-day lives. Modern residential and industrial buildings, bridges, roads and tunnels would be unthinkable without it.
Quantity and Quality
The global boom is continuing, and with it the volume of concrete production. But today, concrete is not not only used in huge quantities for roads, bridges, canals and houses, but also in unprecedented quality. Furniture, kitchens, sculpted staircases, even jewelery are now cast from this popular construction material - and concrete furniture, such as the Lito 1 stool by Stephan Schulz - are given design awards. This versatility makes concrete a champion among construction materials.
Record Breaking
Concrete breaks every record. For example, in building construction, the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the wall towers a proud 828 meters into the sky over Dubai. Such heights are only possible thanks to reinforced concrete, of which some 330,000 cubic meters went into the Burj Khalifa. But this is tiny compared to the heaviest concrete structure in the world: the Three Gorges Dam in China consumed almost 27 million cubic meters of concrete, roughly the volume of 10 pyramids of Giza. From 2011 to 2013, China deployed 6.6 metric gigatons of concrete - as much as the USA used in the entire 20th century. And no end to the boom is in sight.
Facts and Figures
Concerning Concrete
(Platzhalter für Scrollytelling)
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