Concrete Planet: The Strange and Fascinating Story of the World's Most Common Man-Made Material Illustrated Edition, Kindle Edition

We tend to see concrete as one of the commonplaces of our modern world; we seldom give this dull white substance a second thought. Many recall that the Romans used it. But its basic ingredient, lime, came into use far earlier. In fact, like the fire which creates it, lime's time of first use is lost in prehistory.Buildings using lime in construction were found at the Fertile Crescent sites of Göbekli Tepe, Nevali Çori, Çayönyü, and Çatal Höyük — the first two being temples, the last two the world's oldest known towns. To those ancient peoples, lime would have seemed magical, releasing heat when mixed with water and turning into hard rock.The Romans learned to mix it with sand and gravel to form concrete, and later to add clay to the mixture. Some buildings built from the resulting "Roman concrete" have lasted through more than twenty centuries, enduring far longer than anything we have today. The secret of making concrete was lost after that, and rediscovered only in the nineteenth century.Robert Courland's history demonstrates a scholar's dedication to research and a raconteur's gift for storytelling. His tale is filled with heroes and villains, commercial successes and failures, brilliant achievements and abysmal tragedies — right up to the present, when Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionized architecture by making use of reinforced concrete's tensile strength.I expected a rather boring book, but I found this one a genuine page-turner. Who knew that mundane concrete was in use so long ago, or had such an illustrious history?

Concrete Planet (2011) by Robert Courland is a decent effort at a book that looks at the history of concrete. This is clearly going to be a heavy, non-abstract book. The lessons of the book will also be reinforced. At some stage toward the end cracks may also appear.The books chapters on the discovery of concrete and it's use and development as far as the middle of C18 are really good. The way that concrete is likely to have been discovered and then was used in Ancient Rome is fascinating. The chapter on the development of Portland cement is also highly entertaining.The book's quality drops when it reaches the 20th Century. Far too much time is spent looking at Frank Lloyd Wright and not nearly enough at what concrete was being used for in the 20th century. The weird study of the construction of the Sydney Harbour Opera House is silly too. Reinforced concrete's role in the construction of skyscrapers, highways, dams, bridges and other C20 icons is really important. Falling Water isn't nearly as worthy of mention.The book finally looks at how modern reinforced concrete structures have a fairly short lifespan of about 50 years. This is worth thinking about and the book covers this well.Materials are a really neglected part of technology at least in general non-fiction. This is a worthy but flawed book that looks at a really important transforming technology. It's worth reading if you're into these things and much of the book is excellent. It's a pity the whole book doesn't attain the same standard.

I'm neither a civil engineer nor a construction man, but I've always liked the looks and durability of concrete items. This book is simply wonderful.The author does an excellent job of describing technical aspects of concrete's manufacture and use for the non-technician and reveals some absorbing facts. By and large this is a history of mankind's use of concrete and cement illustrated with mini-biographies of the major players ranging from hypothetical neolithic shamans through Herod, Frank Lloyd Wright, and LeCorbusier. Along the way are stories of a number of fascinating characters you have probably never heard of. It is also a summary of the technical changes in concrete over that time.Also, there are surprises. The author makes a good case that concrete is less fireproof, earthquake resistant, and long-lasting than we might imagine. Although such Roman constructions as the Pantheon have lasted without much repair for almost two millenia, most of the modern reinforced concrete constructions will be lucky to last a hundred years. The author gives a very persuasive explanation for this state of affairs.If I have any criticisms at all, they are two-fold. First, the amount of space devoted to certain personalities does not seem that correlated to their importance. As mentioned by another reviewer, the Frank Lloyd Wright section is pretty long. Second, while the author disclaims any technical expertise, he is downright polemic regarding the ways in which the concrete industry has gone wrong, and sometimes right. I think the jury is still out on some of these issues, and there are reasonable disagreements among the experts.Nevertheless, if you have any interest in concrete as a material for anything from birdbaths to skyscrapers, you should find this book a smooth and fascinating read.

The history of concrete? I know, the subject sounds about as exciting as reading an old telephone book. However there are some amazing stories within this book. For one, I did not know Thomas Edison, the electrical inventor, had anything to do with improving cement. Nor did I know that one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most beautiful houses was designed and drafted within a day. Also if you have ever been to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and wondered about the story behind that unusual structure, that story is in this book as well. A great book. Well worth the time to read.

We are "surrounded" by Concrete, yet I knew nothing about its history. I live in North Eastern Ohio and often hike on the Ohio & Erie Canal towpath trails. I always assumed that the surviving ruins of locks and spillways built here in the 1830's were "repaired" using concrete. Thanks to this book, I now know that these were actually designed for and "made" with poured structural concrete in the 1830's....a real engineering marvel! I originally bought this as a Kindle edition, but liked it enough to buy the book for my father for Christmas.

Interesting though technically suspect on some issues

Le béton, c'est très important, c'est aussi très risqué puisqu'en définitive c'est un matériau pas si durable.`Le livre n'est pas très bien fait, il y a beaucoup trop de choses sur le béton romain, beaucoup trop de termes techniques, mais il est quand même utile.

Great book!