Concrete – liquid stone – is both unique and ubiquitous in our modern world. It is the substance most widely used by humans after water. It has many desirable qualities for buildings – strength, fire-resistance, and malleability – but also has a high “carbon cost” of embodied energy that contributes to climate change. The 70 years of the history of the skyscraper, from the 1880s, was a story of steel. Today, though, almost all skyscrapers are built of concrete. That story has had no clear narrative: finding that thread is the subject of this exhibition.
Reinforced concrete was rarely used as a primary structural system for skyscrapers in the first half of the 20th century, but it was present in every tall building in foundations and many hidden areas. The few all-concrete high-rises were experiments and one-offs. Beyond North America, though, reinforced concrete was often the most familiar and economical material of construction.
In the 1960s, concrete became an arena of innovation in the research and practice of architects, engineers, material suppliers, and builders. They invented new systems of structural design: “tubes,” which carried loads on exterior walls, and massive concrete cores that sped construction and stiffened perimeter enclosure systems. Along with greater material strengths, these approaches allowed towers to grow ever taller, climbing to new heights through the 1990s at the same time that the geography of supertalls spread to Asia and the Middle East.
Concrete offers unlimited opportunities for formal invention: poured into molds, it can take any shape, creating sculptural forms of thin ribs, thick walls, or screens. But economics also underpins the logic of all commercial architecture, and concrete makes sense for many reasons. The race to the skies today has been won by concrete.
Opening in late January, 2025.