China is the largest consumer of cement and concrete in the world, the use of which has peaked in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Used for the construction of extensive infrastructure and buildings, over the last twenty years renowned Chinese architects have been working in and studying the constructive limits and spatial and superficial effects of exposed concrete. In the process, they have created a wave of avant-garde architecture in China. Chinese Brutalism Today investigates the compositional, formal, and ornamental reasons for this architecture and its different surface finishes, from rough to smooth. This new wave of Chinese Brutalism is, in large part, a regional evolution and development closely linked to local construction processes and the available labor force. The finished tectonics represent not only a way to read the architecture, but also reveals the complex decision-making processes and planning that led from the conception to construction of these buildings.

Chinese Brutalism Today: Concrete and Avant-Garde Architecture (ORO)

Arts & Photography

Bologna, Alberto

Architecture

ORO Editions

During his long career, Pier Luigi Nervi has explored the potential of concrete through the cast-in place and the prefabrication of elements in reinforced concrete or in ferro-cement, the material he invented and patented during the war. All of his best known works, such as the Berta Stadium, the hangars built in Orivieto, Orbetello and Torre del Lago Puccini, the Halls of the Turin Exposition Center, the Unesco buildings, the Little Sport Palace and the Papal Audience Hall represent an important chapter in the history of architecture, structure and construction of the twentieth century. The passion of Nervi for the manufacturing process of the concrete and formworks is examined in a systematic manner within the volume. The authors illustrate the creative process put in place by Nervi through the examination of documents never even studied in other essays, unpublished designs, drawings, specifications, photographs of the yards and correspondence with colleagues and collaborators.

The Rhetoric of Pier Luigi Nervi: Forms in reinforced concrete and ferro-cement

Gargiani, Roberto

EPFL Press

Architecture Beyond the Cupola: Inventions and Designs of Dante Bini (Mathematics and the Built Environment, 7)

Pugnale, Alberto

Birkhauser

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