Concrete Approximations - by Olivier Ottevaere (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Liquid Pressure, one of concrete's most vigorous properties, is always short-lived and can hardly be contained. Only its counterpart, known as the formwork or false-work in the building industry, is best at influencing and redirecting the course of its active forces.

Concrete and formwork are both the live catalyst and dichotomy explored in this book, through which new forms of spatial organizations are once more made possible. To experiment with concrete is to actively engage with its live properties, in an irreversible dance in which the concrete reacts to the formwork's materials. In this book, two key projects are laid bare, manifesting a shift in the work from an early preoccupation with material responsiveness, to one that additionally addresses concepts of spatiality and its relation to the proposed idea of augmented materiality.