Concrete
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Concrete is a composite material composed of coarse granular material (the aggregate or filler) embedded in a hard matrix of material (the cement or binder) that fills the space among the aggregate particles and glues them together.
Concrete is widely used for making architectural structures, foundations, brick/block walls, pavements, bridges/overpasses, highways, runways, parking structures, dams, pools/reservoirs, pipes, footings for gates, fences and poles and even boats.
Famous concrete structures include the Hoover Dam, the Panama Canal and the Roman Pantheon.
Concrete technology was known by the ancient Romans and was widely used in the Roman Empire—the Colosseum was built largely of concrete and the concrete dome of the Pantheon is the world's largest. After the Empire was destroyed, use of concrete became scarce until the technology was re-pioneered in the mid-18th century.
See also
- Brutalist architecture, encouraging visible concrete surfaces
- Concrete art
- Concrete poetry
- Musique concrète