Concrete and Culture

Almost three tons of concrete are produced each year for every person on the planet; only water is consumed more per head of population. Now used almost universally in modern construction, concrete polarizes opinion: provoking intense loathing and even nausea in some, it is regarded by others with a messianic passion. Concrete and Culture breaks new ground by studying concrete'...

Almost three tons of concrete are produced each year for every person on the planet; only water is consumed more per head of population. Now used almost universally in modern construction, concrete polarizes opinion: provoking intense loathing and even nausea in some, it is regarded by others with a messianic passion. Concrete and Culture breaks new ground by studying concrete's effects on culture rather than its technical properties. Adrian Forty examines the ways concrete has changed our understanding of 'nature', of time, even of 'material'. While the book concentrates upon architects' responses to concrete, because they have had most to say about the medium, it also takes into account the role concrete has played in politics, in literature, in cinema, in labour-relations, and in present day arguments about sustainability. Politicians, entrepreneurs, clerics, photographers, artists, and filmmakers have all taken advantage of concrete for purposes of their own. Covering Europe, North America, South America and the Far East, Concrete and Culture asks to what degree concrete has been responsible for modernist uniformity and looks at the debates it has engendered. The first reflection on the global consequences of concrete, the book offers a new way of looking at our environment over the past one hundred years.

阿德里安·福蒂（Adrian Forty）

伦敦大学学院（UCL）建筑史教授，建筑史研究生课程主管，历史与理论系前主管。他早年在牛津大学历史系学习，擅长以更宽阔的视野研究建筑历史。其理论研究的主要特色是从人们身边最习以为常却最容易被忽视的角度出发，探讨人与生活其中的物质环境的关系。著有《欲求之物：1750 年以来的设计与社会》《语词与建筑：现代建筑词汇》。

尚晋

2012年硕士毕业于清华大学建筑学院，中国翻译协会会员。致力于建筑历史与理论研究，译著有《从包豪斯到生态建筑》《美国国家地理 125 周年》《洛吉耶论建筑》《建筑师解读古德曼》《理想城市：及其在欧洲建筑学中的演变》。