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Adaptability, fluidity, thinness and creativity: concrete has never looked so good. It is once again becoming a favorite material of architects thanks to its technical as well as ecological qualities. Find out about its multiple applications and developments in a series of 9 videos, unveiled all summer long...

Video No. 1: Concrete, material for life

Concrete is the most durable and economical building material. It makes it possible to address the needs of a growing and increasingly urbanized world population. Lafarge is working together with researchers and engineers to design a high-tech material which is ever more responsive to the imagination and needs of architects.

Flash animation

To watch the animation, you must download Flash Player

Language: English / Duration: 6:00 / Date: 2009

At the heart of concrete – scientific research

Image of concrete magnified 5,000 times

At the heart of materials

In order to improve the performance and properties of its products, Lafarge's R&D teams study the microstructure of materials at the nano-scale. Thanks to their excellent understanding of the physical and chemical phenomena of materials, Lafarge researchers are able to develop products with remarkable properties.

Concrete is apparently very simple. And yet what was until recently simply a convenient material tested empirically, concrete is now a product which is studied scientifically in the lab and which reveals considerable development potential. Concrete has entered a new high-tech era!

 

The last 20 years have seen the invention of very innovative high-tech concretes with extremely varied properties opening new perspectives for the use of concrete. This new technological era has been possible thanks to:

 

  • The pooling of multidisciplinary scientific knowledge: chemistry, rheology, physics, mechanics of construction materials, micromechanics, etc.
  • The entry into the digital age: nuclear magnetic resonance, electron microscopy, nanoindentation, atomic force microscopy, etc. These new instruments make it possible to expand our in-depth knowledge of concrete to the heart of the material, down to the nanoscale.

Last update on 06/23/2009

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Lafarge & Columbia University

Innovative concretes & sustainable architecture

Find out all the program of the conferences dedicated to concrete and organized by Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture in exclusive partnership with Lafarge.

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