{"id":1076,"date":"2011-04-11T17:30:11","date_gmt":"2011-04-11T17:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markstephensarchitectss.wordpress.com\/2011\/04\/11\/ch6c-materials-concrete-love-it-or-loathe-it\/"},"modified":"2011-04-11T17:30:11","modified_gmt":"2011-04-11T17:30:11","slug":"ch6c-materials-concrete-love-it-or-loathe-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markstephensarchitects.com\/ch6c-materials-concrete-love-it-or-loathe-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Ch6c~ Materials, concrete-love it or loathe it…"},"content":{"rendered":"
Concrete, Love it or loathe it ?…<\/b><\/p>\n
One of the materials that is ideally suited for construction in Ireland considering the availability of the raw materials is concrete. Although much derided as being a eco-unfriendly option; the use of Eco-based cement goes some way to making concrete a more sustainable option. Often seen as an making buildings look ‘industrial’, handled carefully and perhaps treated in different ways; concrete can be a delicate, beautiful and entirely appropriate material to work with. It is also a material that Irish contractors have a lot of experience with, albeit in agricultural buildings such as slurry tanks.<\/p>\n
Probably the master in the use of concrete is the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, where the house in Osaka shown below shows how Ando has transformed concrete into a soft pillow-like material. Special thanks to Jan Schipull (http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/x\/t\/0102002\/photos\/janorama\/<\/a>) for the photography<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n
\nIn our own house we used concrete extensively to construct the structure for the grass roof; if you don’t prefer the ‘bare’ concrete look or you feel that it may be a little too ‘grey’ for the west of Ireland then there’s nothing to stop you painting it white as we did; we left all of the concrete untreated so that the timber formwork could still be seen in places but a few coats of Dulux Weathershield exterior paint brightens the horizontality of the internal ceilings and the external, concealed drainage system.<\/p>\n