The Architectural Review

The Concrete issue is here, examining the factors that stand in the way of a radical shift from carbon-intensive building materials in construction. Concrete is the most consumed material on the planet after water, with more than 10 billion tonnes produced each year in a process that – as Martha Dillon finds in the issue’s Keynote essay – is uniquely difficult to decarbonise. In essays on Ítala Fulvia Villa’s brutalist necropolis for Buenos Aires and French social housing architect Renée Gailhoustet, the issue acknowledges concrete’s historic role in vital public infrastructure. But it also highlights the urgent need to reduce the use of concrete and cement in construction wherever possible. From France to Tanzania, architectural projects in the issue are found to be minimising concrete’s ecological impact. While commendable, these projects cannot alone challenge the dominance of the concrete industry. As Dillon reminds us, doing so is the responsibility of a whole ‘ecosystem’ of designers, suppliers, states and regulators. AR October 2024 features projects by Studio. Mumbai and Studio Mediterranée Architectes, Material Cultures, BC architects & studies, MAIO, AFF Architects, and others; and writing by Florian Heilmeyer, Léa Namer, Owen Hatherley, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Manon Mollard, Eleanor Beaumont and many others. Find out more about the issue here: https://lnkd.in/ekgvmHrY

‘The magic of hempcrete starts in the field,’ writes Justinien Tribillon in the Concrete issue. ‘Cannabis sativa is a crop that grows quickly and easily on a variety of grounds, in a diversity of climates, without pesticides and with an impressive capacity to lock up carbon.’ Hempcrete is a relatively young material; it has only been around since the late 1980s and is made from a mixture of hemp shiv, lime and water. ‘The name evokes concrete, of course,’ writes Tribillon. ‘Their mixing techniques and components are quite similar: hempcrete can be projected onto a surface, poured in formwork or cast in block shapes, either on‑site or prefabricated and delivered ready to be used. But the resemblance stops here.’ Read the full essay on hempcrete insulation, and meet the architects fighting to scale up use of this bio-based material in construction:

The W Awards, celebrating exemplary work by women and non-binary people, are back and open for entries! You can enter any category yourself or nominate someone else. Entries close Friday 29 November. Find out more here: https://bit.ly/4fioZsk

As well as a programme of education, the Montessori method offers a number of principles on the architectural design of schools. At the Ngabobo village in northern Tanzania, a new Montessori school designed by APC Architectural Pioneering Consultants and Wolfgang Rossbauer was an ‘opportunity to test them’ writes Ethel-Ruth Tawe. In the building, ‘classrooms blend into each other, limiting the use of doors, and the walls are rotated by 45 degrees towards the sun‘, creating niches and nooks for shelves and books. Ground floor spaces open up to the outdoors and ‘the fenceless campus makes it difficult to distinguish the perimeter of the site – an alignment with both the Maasai’s connection with nature, as well as Montessori principles’ At times, though, the Montessori principles contradict the cultural heritage of the local Maasai population. Constructed from concrete blocks, the building’s ‘sense of permanence seems to conflict with Maasai architectural heritage,’ Tawe writes, while the multistorey volume is ‘unusual in the area’. ‘The Simba Vision school is testament to cross‑cultural experimentation in progress,’ Tawe writes, ‘welcomed by the community but with room for growth.’ Read more:

‘A Department of Energy seems like the sort of agency that should know exactly the amount of, well, energy, it takes to construct a building – and the associated emissions,’ writes Steve Webb in this month’s Outrage. Webb’s ire is directed at a new definition from the US Department of Energy of what constitutes ‘zero-emissions architecture’. Like many similar official definitions, it does not account for embodied carbon emissions, only operational energy use. ‘These definitions seem almost designed to maintain a state of Orwellian doublethink, allowing us to sit happily in our steel, glass and concrete buildings, assured of their environmental impeccability because they have a few solar panels and an air source heat pump.’ Read the full Outrage from the Concrete issue now:

The AR New into Old awards 2025 will open for entries in November. Make sure you’re one of the first to know by registering your interest here: https://bit.ly/3BU8W5H

‘On approaching MAIO’s new social housing scheme, it seems as if Christo and Jeanne‑Claude have given the entire five‑storey structure their trademark fabric wrap treatment,’ writes Ethel Baraona Pohl in the Concrete issue. ‘But what you see are in fact heavy textile curtains, made from the standard PVC‑backed canvas material used for most awnings in Spain. With little maintenance required and a long lifespan, these curtains are one of the low‑cost strategies that the architects have employed to control solar heat gain within the building.’ Take a peek at what Pohl finds behind the curtains, in print or available online now: https://lnkd.in/dpyJGURC

Sand is not the first problem that comes to mind when thinking of the environmental problems posed by concrete, though it is at the centre of a new graphic novel co-authored by architect Alia Bengana on exactly these issues. ‘In Algeria, where concrete is associated with modernity, the sand used to make concrete comes from the coast,’ Bengana tells The Architectural Review’s editor Manon Mollard in an interview. ‘The desert’s sand, rolled and polished by the wind is not coarse enough. Increasingly, we turn to sand under the sea. But due to its salinity, it requires intensive cleaning, which uses water. The overexploitation of sand has enormous consequences for the planet – ecological, economical, political.’ Read their full conversation: https://lnkd.in/duqCA5m3

‘It wasn’t until 2017, at the age of 88, that Renée Gailhoustet received her first major prize,’ writes Nichola Barrington-Leach in a Reputations of the late French social housing architect. ‘Although a few other recognitions followed, she remained in the shadows of collective architectural history for much too long – particularly in contrast to the recognition often received by her male contemporaries. ‘From the early 1960s to the mid‑1980s, Gailhoustet shaped the periphery of Paris with innovative yet humane housing blocks and masterplans. In an era of uniformity and concrete frames, where the commodification of space was increasingly prioritised, Gailhoustet seized the wave of liberalism and creativity instilled by May 1968 to bring her ambitious ideas to life. ‘She was an authentic architect of uncompromising principles, quietly daring and naturally authoritative. Void of judgement and never one to speak ill of anyone, she focused on a broader social vision.’ Read about Gailhoustet’s full legacy: https://lnkd.in/dQw2xYAQ Or pick up a copy of the Concrete issue at our online shop: https://lnkd.in/dFctBq69 📷 Colour photographs by Sacha Trouiller

Subscribe before Sunday to receive the AR Emerging issue! Celebrating 25 years of the AR Emerging awards, the next issue of The Architectural Review brings together past finalists in conversation. The awards’ first winner Sixten Rahlff speaks to John Lin and Joshua Bolchover from Rural Urban Framework about humanitarian architecture; Anna Heringer and Nripal Adhikary discuss the challenges of building with earth; Carles Oliver Barceló, Christelle Avenier and Miguel Arturo Chávez Cornejo talk about housing that is both social and sustainable. Subscribe before 23:59 BST on Sunday to receive the AR Emerging issue as soon as it is out – subscriptions support an ecosystem of writers and photographers, and guarantee the AR’s editorial independence: https://lnkd.in/eycbuWiT