Concrete has been used in arches, vaults, and domes dating as far back as the Roman Empire. Today, it is everywhere—in our roads, bridges, sidewalks, walls, and architecture. For each person on the planet, nearly three tons of concrete are produced every year. Used almost universally in modern construction, concrete has become a polarizing material that provokes intense loathing in some and fervent passion in others.             Focusing on concrete’s effects on culture rather than its technical properties, Concrete and Culture examines the ways concrete has changed our understanding of nature, of time, and even of material. Adrian Forty concentrates not only on architects’ responses to concrete, but also takes into account the role concrete has played in politics, literature, cinema, labor-relations, and arguments about sustainability. Covering Europe, North and South America, and the Far East, Forty examines the degree that concrete has been responsible for modernist uniformity and the debates engendered by it. The first book to reflect on the global consequences of concrete, Concrete and Culture offers a new way to look at our environment over the past century. 

Product Description: This original and thoughtful study provides the first thorough examination of the relationship between architecture and language as complex social practices.The words we use when we talk and write about architecture describe more than just bricks and mortar―they direct the ways we think of and live with buildings...read more

Product Description: In tracing the process through which monuments give rise to collective memories, this path-breaking book emphasizes that memorials are not just inert and amnesiac spaces upon which individuals may graft their ever-shifting memories...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Traces and analyzes the history of product design since 1750, beginning with the design and marketing innovations of Josiah Wedgwood, and examines how product design came into existence, how it influences our choices, and what is says about society