Cracking concrete conference on the Southbank

Yesterday I spent the day at the Southbank Centre, London with fellow 'concrete-ophiles' for the 'Specifying Visual Concrete' Conference. The audience was a mix of Architects, Consultants and Suppliers and the guest speakers provided a great insight into different features and uses of concrete in construction. @thisisconcrete were 'tweeting' throughout the conference if you're interested in seeing what went on...

The Angel Building by AHMM

The big themes of the conference seemed to be about how the construction industry can change clients' perception towards concrete and how it can be used sustainably. Thermal mass was the buzz word for the day and it was shown how it could be used to negate the need for air conditioning and thus offset the carbon created during its construction.

Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield by David Chipperfield

All the guest speakers were engaging though my particular highlights were the talks by Steve Smith from AHMM on the Angel Building, Alex Waight from Allies and Morrison on their office building, Anton Sawicki from Ramboll on the new Hepworth Gallery and PhD candidate John Orr on fabric formed concrete which introduced some exciting possibilities for the way concrete could be used in the future to achieve structural efficiency and complex geometry.

To summarise, this conference really cemented my love for concrete.

'One must be entirely sensitive to the structure of the material that one is handling. One must yield to it in tiny details of execution, perhaps the handling of the surface or grain, and one must master it as a whole.'
Barbara Hepworth