Concrete

Lecture 5

Concrete. It is safe, secure, healthy and is built to last. 

Concrete through the ages jewish museum ‘Fallen Leaves’ a memory void and Schalechet installation draws your attention by the voids that cut through the entire vertical axis of the building.  Concrete is seen as a cold material , due to its texture and cool colour of grey. This feeling of cold and emptiness reflects the expulsion and destruction of the Jewish life in the Shoah, which can not be refilled. The materials chosen create a visual impact of loss and grief through the use of architecture. The parallel walls of smooth concrete, draws you in by the reflection of the sun beaming off them, thus creates a nice feeling as if those who were taken are still here. The sunlight creates a calm atmosphere which vastly changes just by the concrete being layered above one an other, creating  a dark hole which mirrors what those who were taken felt. Concrete here conveys two different emotions and that is why it is such a empowering material as no other material could convey the emotion being g portrayed here.

Looking at the ages of jewish museum got me further thinking about how concrete can be used to create different atmospheres. Light transmitting concrete, something that is achieved by replacing aggregates with transparent alternate materials. This creates a playful atmosphere, along with a satisfying affect due to the general thought in your head of concrete being big and bold, when actually it can become almost see through.  This concrete would have worked well in my current project ‘relaxing community’ as my group focused on light and reflection and how we could distract the human might. Thus would have worked greatly throughout our zones as we used a solid concrete block which doesn’t have as much of a visual impact than light transmitting concrete.

Overall concrete is one of the most reliable materials there is within architecture as it is a solid material where you can guarantee that it is going to last as well as having a nice finish to a building.