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Msaad benjamin mehtaaditya fa23 item 2   new concrete ecologies

Resetting Concrete Ecologies

Its 2040. As old infrastructures begin to fail, within the cracks we find opportunity to restich the urban fabric with a material strategy allows for material, ecological and social diversity. Surfaces open up to air and water to finally host life and creates room for newer identities to take root. The old concrete has failed. We now derive our new Magnesium cements straight from the rising seawater.

There can be no singular recipe. No magic ingredient that we scour from every depth of the earth, and slap into and onto every surface. Geologies differ, cultures differ, climates differ, structural loads differ, responsibilities differ, histories differ, ecosystems differ, functions differ, the recipes must differ.

This new concrete mixes several carbon neutral recipes, given a palette of concretes some that are structural, some that are porous, some that host life and some that just look pretty. From within the cracks of failing city surfaces, this concrete grasps the opportunity for flora and fauna to co-exist in the urban fabric.