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Monday, October 15, 2007

CONCRETE WALL OF FAME

Are you thinking of finally building your dream house? A two-storey house perhaps? With concrete wall and concrete floor? A dwelling that will be with your family for generations. Well, before you contact a variety of concrete contractors let me assist you on knowing the very foundation of your home, let me educate you on some interesting facts about three famous concrete architectures.

First we have the Fallingwater. Built in 1991, Fallingwater was voted "the best all-time work of American architecture." by the members of the American Institute of Architects. This remarkable creation is known to many as one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most acclaimed work.

The Fallingwater property was designed in 1935 for the Edgar J. Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh; Wright concentrated on the beauty of nature around him, especially the waterfall that sings to the heart of anyone who'll take a glimpse of its cascading body. Wright placed! the house over the falls in a series of cantilevered concrete "trays," anchored to masonry walls made of the same Pottsville sandstone as the rock ledges. Even though the house rose over 30 feet above the falls, the strong horizontal lines and low ceilings helped maintain a sheltering effect.

The next one is a famous building in Southeast Asia, The Petronas Towers. Found in Malaysia, the Petronas Towers was declared tallest in the world in 1998. Standing at a staggering 1,483 ft (452 meters), the building is one of the country's most amazing accomplishments. It hasn't been a smooth journey for the builder's though, because of the fact that they are working on a budget; they have to think of clever ways to go about the lack of steel. This material is scarce in Malaysia and it is very expensive to import it, so the builders planned a way to push the project without the additional cost and decided to build the towers using a cheaper radical design of super high strengt! h reinforced concrete. This is ideal because concrete is a mat! erial fa miliar to Asian contractors and twice as effective as steel in sway reduction; however, it makes the building twice as heavy on its foundation than a comparable steel building. Supported by 23-by-23 meter concrete cores and an outer ring of widely-spaced super columns, the towers use a sophisticated structural system that accommodates its slender profile and provides from 1300 to 2000 square metres of column-free office space per floor.

Last but not the least, we have the Marina City. A creation of the talented Bertrand GoldBerg in 1964, Marina City is a complex of two 60-storey towers found in Chicago. It is a complex of recreation complex, apartments, restaurants, offices, movie houses, concrete sidewalks and 18 stories of parking space.




This complex was at that time the biggest ever built in concrete and its exterior was in contrast with the norm of straight lines and small-spaced apartment buildings, the builders deemed it wise to use a cylindri! cal shape to have less wind pressure. They also found out that a concrete retaining wall would add to the depth of the building. The architect choose to work with reinforced concrete instead of steel because he wanted to create petal-shaped apartments and only this material will accomplish the said project.

These are just but three amazing concrete creations, there are more out there just waiting to be discovered. And who knows? Your house may become part of history in the future.

For more information about concrete walls visit this site on concrete contractors.


About the authorSheryll Cross is a web copywriter for a web design company, that is associated with a concrete contractor company. Sheryll Cross is a web copywriter for a web design company, that is associated with! a concrete contractor company.
Source: http://www.articlebin.com/view-CONCRETE_WALL_OF_FAME-78499.html
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