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Ah, lovely, beautiful sexy concrete. One of Mankind's greatest inventions, it could be argued. Composite building materials have been in use since the time of the Egyptians, and the Romans first introduced it to Britain.
So, let's see yer concrete carbuncles. From the small to the tall, the simple to the most elaborate.
Once again, where else can I start??
Colechurch House, London Bridge:
[img] http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/propertySearch/get.res?guid=124baa6c-9f24-463b-8dd8-297f2895d447 [/img]
Space House, Holborn:
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National Theatre, South Bank:
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The multi storey car park in Gateshead that is no more...
😥
I've got qualifications in concrete.
EDIT
I do love a good powerfloated floor. Nice shiny concrete 🙂
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HTS, is that the Stratosphere?
HTS, is that the Stratosphere?
Dunno.
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Got a love hate with this building [and it's occupants]. Can't find a better picture of it either not that there are many flattering angles anyway
Are they carved into it PP? Or was it cast?
A great big slab of it in Piccadilly Gardens, which I like.
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And in the background the very concrete and truly hideous Piccadilly hotel. And something cool by the same architect:
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Pantheon Rome c125 AD
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The Education factory (Leeds University) -
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The 'Easy Stoner' building, Leesd Uni
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Hyde Park flats, Sheffield (now demolished)
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Dortmund TV Tower (it's quite windy up there)
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Brunel Uni Lecture Theatre (I believe it's a listed building because of the wood-grain in the concrete):
EDIT - Oh Poo.....they've taken the link down or something.......
Found another one....
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I tried to find some more pictures of the 'interesting' Brunel campus buildings but couldn't. I believe people find them too disturbing.
EDIT - Oh and some more Brunel-based Trivia. I believe the lecture theatre & Howell Building behind it are meant to look like a Spanish Galleon, when viewed in isolation. But, the buildings around it have encroached so much that you can't stand far enough back to take it their full beauty.
The sunken garden at the front of the lecture theatre was supposed to be a pond, further strengthening the Spanish Galleon (in water) thing. But, myth says that when it was filled it leaked and so they just left it empty.
Glenfinnan viaduct (as seen in Harry Potter). First structure in the world to use mass concrete technique apparently. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that all of the Roman buildings above are stone, held together with mortar
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Canary Wharf underground station
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50p Building in Croydon
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Better at night
[img] http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/resources/images/257074/?type=display [/img]
Tricorn Center, Portsmouth
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Didn't look quite as good in daylight...
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Fiddlers Ferry Power Station in Warrington. My grandparents lived not far away from it so I've driven past it countless times. Horrible place but cooling towers have, for some strange reason always impressed me.
Oh look at all this lovely concrete! 😀
(Weeps at the beauty of it all)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that all of the Roman buildings above are stone, held together with mortar
Apparently the Pantheon in Rome has the World's largest unsupported concrete dome.
Nice to see the Italians continuing with the tradition of flamboyant stadia:
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San Siro, Milan.
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Todao Ando again:
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Love the cooling towers - the shape is driven purely by function but is so "right"
Concrete ship!
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Anything by Santiago Calatrava
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WOW
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more here
http://gcaptain.com/ships-in-concrete-best-maritime-inspired-architecture?983
Apollo Pavillion
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L'Eglise Saint Pierre - Firminy Vert
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Cardross Seminary
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School of Modern Dance, Cuba (not strictly concrete but still fantastic)
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Stumpy... I thought that the Brunel library was supposed to be a representative of the SS Great Britain? I also heard when I was there that it was built the wrong way round, but that could be legend.
i love concrete! - it's ace stuff.
hoover dam:
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[img] http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/content/news/migrated-news/images/birmingham-central-library [/img]
and
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Lovely Brummy buildings
Stoney Trail - Bow River Bridge Calgary
can't find a decent picture of this bridge but it is very beautiful in the fleash so to speak
Teh Scottish parliament building - very marmite but I think history will be kind to it as archtecture.
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Le Corbusier (I assume it's concrete).
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Tricorn Center, Portsmouth
I have completely forgotten what that looked liked
Mancunian Way - it won a concrete award so it must be good:
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I was going to say, the mancunian way ... i used to walk past that sign everyday and wonder about it.
Spinnaker Tower:
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the Shard:
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Concrete is awesome. I've just come back from a meeting for an RC building that I'm designing which is cantilevering out over a mainline railway tunnel in Camden.
Terrible material. Shocking levels of embodied energy in the manufacture of concrete. A real shame that more people don't give a toss about what their houses are made of - but they will slap a few solar panels on the top of it to make them feel a bit better.
TSY - Prado skatepark? Best bit of French architecture on the thread so far.
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Gregynog Hall. Made of concrete apparently.
EDIT: it's concrete clad, but this was apparently the first concrete house in the world, a worker's cottage on the estate
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I'll bite TooTall. Very few private houses in this country are made from concrete. Also, modern concrete framed buildings are have to pass stringent Building Regs for energy efficiency that are getting tighter all the time.
Are bricks not reasonably energy intensive also?
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Rachel Whiteread
The [url= http://www.thecoolhunter.co.uk/architecture ]Coolhunter[/url] has endless fatastic buildings, a lot of them concrete.
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I'll bite TooTall. Very few private houses in this country are made from concrete. Also, modern concrete framed buildings are have to pass stringent Building Regs for energy efficiency that are getting tighter all the time.
Missed the hook. Try again. It has nothing to do with private houses and Building Regs for efficiency. It has to do with the embodied energy in the building material. This might help explain:
[url= http://www.greenspec.co.uk/embodied-energy.php ]Embodied Energy[/url]
Don't forget that you can't directly compare the figures as you use different quantities in construction. However, mass concrete isn't very environmentally sound as a material.
I understand embodied energy perfectly, but the initial build is only part of the lifecycle energy use of a building. Concrete also absorbs significant amounts ofCO2 as it cures and that link was cradle to gate. BTW, you're the one who mentioned houses....
I'm no RC fanatic, I design buildings using most materials and (like most engineers) try to be as efficient as possible. However, often concrete is the best option.
IMHO concrete can be considerably more environmentally sound than other materials - particularly if you're doing things that have to hold other things up or back, and that need to last for a long time.
Probably one of the least environmentally conscious building materials used in the last decade has been thin timber cladding which isn't maintained, isn;t detailed properly and looks like poo within 6 months, and lasts for about 5 years. It may have low embodied energy but if it stops doing its function within such a short timescale then as far as I'm concerned its failed as a choice of material.
Anyway...
Brynmawr Rubber Factory - criminally demolished
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le Corbusier - Philips Pavilion (hyperbolic paraboloid)[img] http://kingdomofstyle.typepad.co.uk/.a/6a00d8341c2f0953ef01347f963d51970c-500wi [/img]
The old Cheshire Police HQ, Chester.
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Santiago Bernabeu
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Not sure if you can see from the photo but the pitch itself is below street level. Inside the stadium is alot bigger than it appears on the outside.
No arguing on my architecture thread please. If not like then go away not cause trouble for other people who enjoy.
aP is architect so knows stuffs.
Some wonderful examples of the sheer diversity of forms that can be created using concrete, and some stunningly mad structures!
Caymden Tahyn All:
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Catholic Cathedral, Liverpool:
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Guggenheim Museum, New York:
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hyperbolic paraboloid
😯
No need to be so rude!
Carlo Scarpa
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Carlo Scarpa
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Carlo Scarpa
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Carlo Scarpa
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Carlo Scarpa
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Carlo Scarpa
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aaaaand... Carlo Scarpa
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More National Theatre:
[url= http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5064/5684834123_9c61722773_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/62404183@N04/5684834123/ ]NT 05[/url]
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Emley Moor Mast: tallest free-standing building in the UK, and tells me that I'm nearly home when I see her...
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just to stir things up a little:
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i like it.
(blue circle cement works, Hope - it looked very noble this evening)
I posted that ^^ the other week. Hi-5!
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Underground Basilica de St. Pie X, Lourdes.
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We had our wedding reception in this piece of brutalist retro-crete. 8)
My patio, no pictures but I need to lose 3m x 3m x 0.7m
and best of all, Elfin has offered to run the barrow while we shift it!
When, WCA? This weekend?
Not yet, the builders still have their skip in the way from the kitchen extension.
I have managed to hide the first 1/2 ton of rubble in their last couple of skips but the next session is the real thing. I reckon a rented kanga and a 6 cubic yard skip or two should see the back of it. No more that 20 tons in total is the current guestimate.
Trust me, you will be called upon, my family don't trust me with power tools any more and reckon my shoulders won't cope with hard work
If I could link pictures to our holiday in Rome I could show you some great early concrete buildings
No probs. Just give me a shout when you need me.
Barbican Centre, London.
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Rather fond of this building, the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, in Chippenham. I just love it's clean, uncluttered lines.
Los Torres Blancas, Madrid
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Where I learnt to swim, now called Wrecsam Water World.
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*thinks about three Mini Coopers*
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Don Simon I'm glad you posted the old police HQ at Chester, now it's awfulness has gone the pink flats at Salmon Leap should be The next concrete carbunkles crushed in Chester. Gorgeous views looking out over the Dee just hope no one sees you though.
If the Brunel building is listed due to woodgrain effect will this also apply to the Flyover next to Edgware Road Tube Station? Scaffold board woodgrain all over that beastie.
Also being pedantic the Shard has a concrete core for lifts etc. but will be steel and glass clad so not really eligible for this thread.
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I went to see Preston Bus Station when a gf lived there (yep posted above):
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I'll see your Hope Cement works are raise you a Barcelona Cement works - now converted to housing
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[img] http://twistedsifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/cement-factory-conversion-ricardo-bofill-barcelona-spain-28.jp g" target="_blank">
http://twistedsifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/cement-factory-conversion-ricardo-bofill-barcelona-spain-28.jp g"/> [/img]
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with all the foliage it reminds me a bit of Cardross Seminary posted earlier - makes me wonder whether Urban Splash will make anything as interesting with the building or whether they'll make something as soulless as their conversion of Fort Dunlop
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Newcastle Civic Centre
maccruiskeen - the Barcelona Cement works is superb. Reading up on it now!
That cement works is epic.
It reminds me of Palatine in Rome.
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If the Brunel building is listed due to woodgrain effect will this also apply to the Flyover next to Edgware Road Tube Station? Scaffold board woodgrain all over that beastie.
Perhaps it is protected too?
Brunel lecture centre is genuinely protected - it was actually an intended feature of the building and not just a byproduct of the construction process.
Don Simon I'm glad you posted the old police HQ at Chester, now it's awfulness has gone the pink flats at Salmon Leap should be The next concrete carbunkles crushed in Chester. Gorgeous views looking out over the Dee just hope no one sees you though.
How dare you? Both I feel are function over form. The old Police HQ was a perfect example of the 1960s' architecture.
The flats at Salmoln Leap have an almost pefect view, only spoiled by the flats on the other side of the river, which neither add anything to the cityscape or provide the resident with anything positive apart froma flat within the city walls. I love the flats at Salmoln Leap as I did the Police HQ.
Stunning. Some amazing stuff posted here. Dispels the myth that concrete buildings are ugly, soulless depressing lumps.This has been very enlightening.
This wonderful building, the 'Metal Box' in Reading, is due for demolition. Which I think is criminal personally. It's a brilliant example of a particular style of architecture, and ought to be preserved for historical reasons, imo. I suspect it will be replaced with some utterly soulless and unimaginative glass boxes, like everywhere else. Can't stand the way that certain styles are preserved regardless of real merit, yet others simply brushed aside, wiping out history.
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It's a proper sexy 70s building. Just the sight of it evokes memories of pretty girls in bold pattered outfits, with nice hair...
The Metal Box is the Athena Tennis Girl of the building world. Might not have bin the greatest example of architecture ever, but has a cultural value and is part of the landscape of time.
There used to be quite a bit of concrete domestic housing, some crap, some doing just fine. I own this one, Laing Easiform construction, c1948. It will likely outlast me and isn't showing any problems beyond what any older house might. Double skin poured in situ, solid as a rock, but don't try drilling holes with mamby pamby cordless, SDS and a fresh bit every time.
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Brand new, just up the road in Wakefield is the Hepworth gallery, another "Oh look at me I'm made of CONCRETE ****fest".
Drivel.
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I can't believe their going to knock down that building (the Metal Box) in Reading. It's one of the best bits of the place.
They should get rid of the god awful Apex Plaza instead....