New languages for architecture from concrete
Spanish architect Fernando Menis: mixing stone with cement gives buildings new strength. Alberto de Vizio (Federbeton-Atecap): Concrete helps build solid, durable, original and highly inventive structures
"When you break cement, stone gives it life: Cement alone is not alive. Cement is modern but cold, stone on the other hand has a soul:. Mixing stone with cement creates a kind of “fluid stone” that transmits strength to buildings."
Fernando Menis, the famous Spanish architect - who animated an extremely interesting Lectio Magistralis organised by VeronaFiere as a joint cultural event for the 28th Samoter (2-6 March 2011) and the 44th Marmomacc (scheduled next 30 September-3 October) - explained his original language inspired by the invention of a new material based on the re-composition of stone and cement. This approach - and its originality and superb results - also had a very positive impact on Federbeton, the Federation of Associations of Cement-Based Materials and Products.
"This is not stone used as a decorative element facing traditional structures in cement but precisely a structural element of the cement mix. This involves repeated tests in relation to the materials used," Menis continued, "for example until now we have inserted fragments with dimensions of up to a few centimetres; we are now investigating the use of larger elements, having the dimensions of a fist. Since the mix can be poured into caissons having widely different shapes, it means I can create structural elements with a kind of fluid stone." A splendid example of this technique is the Adeje Conference Centre in the Canary Islands, where Menis created volumes in solid cement mixed with fragments of local black stone split using pneumatic hammers.
Yet The technique invented by Menis also has other astonishing applications: "Thanks to this material, I can control the acoustics of settings: for example, in a church where I built the structure by mixing cement with lava ash, we optimised sound and speech perception in the entire setting simply by scraping some of the material off the surface. This was a progressive task: we scraped the surfaces and then performed a test; then we removed some more material and checked the result with another test. We proceeded in this way until we achieved excellence."
In short, every work by Menis is unique and significantly bonded with the local area, since he seeks to recover everything valid emerging from the past, notwithstanding extremely modern design and use of technologies.
This innovative approach to a material, such as concrete that has always been considered as not particularly creative - finds the convinced support of Federbeton.
"The association representing the Italian concrete industry is delighted to respond with optimism and satisfaction to anyone whose work and projects highlights the features of a product such as concrete and its enormous potential," said Alberto de Vizio, Director of Federbeton-Atecap. "Concrete is a construction material that not only meets the requisites for mechanical strength but also those for aesthetics, distribution of light and thermal-acoustic insulation."
De Vizio also claims that such significant evolution is influencing the rules of aesthetics.
"The stage when 'lightweight and transparent' was synonymous - at least in contemporary architecture - with beauty and modernity is coming to an end. Today, the load-bearing values in the art of building are turning to concepts such as sturdiness, warmth, bonding structures with local contexts and the surrounding natural settings and environmental impact - and concrete is largely made up of natural and recyclable elements.
Concrete helps designers create solid, durable, original and highly inventive structures. Moreover, this material is part of a short production chain and for this reason has an intrinsic territorial dimension - and even its economy focuses on a 'local' scale, from extraction sites to builders."
Then there is the significant feeling between concrete producers and architects opening out new approaches and setting new goals in the use of this material.
"All this makes it possible to combine notions such as 'functionality' and 'distinctiveness' and thereby generate a new 'policy of signs' by creating architectural hallmarks as part of immediately recognisable major works," De Vizio summed up, "that highlight the new appearance we are seeking to achieve in large cities as testimony of their status on the world scene."
Verona, 22/7/2009
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