Concrete

Concrete Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Louis Kahn.


 * Concrete** is a manufactured mixture of cement and water, with aggregates of sand and stones, which hardens rapidly by chemical combination to a stonelike, water-and-fire-resisting solid of great compressive but low tensile strength.


 * Reinforced concrete** adds the tensile strength of steel to the compressive strength of mass concrete.


 * Concrete-shell** construction permits the erection of vast vaults and domes with a concrete and steel content so reduced that the thickness is comparatively less than that of an eggshell.


 * Precast-concrete** construction, employs bricks, slabs, and supports made under optimal factory conditions to increase waterproofing and solidity, to decrease time and cost in erection, and to reduce expansion and contractions.


 * Prestressed concrete** provides bearing members into which reinforcement is set under tension to produce a live force to resist a particular load.