Concrete

=Concrete= Concrete is a manufactured mixture of cement and water, with aggregates of sand and stones, wich hardens rapidly by chemical combination to a stonelike, water-and-fire-resisting solid of great compressive but low tensile strenght.

Types of concrete:

 * - Reinforced Concrete:** invented by Joseph Monier in 1849, was developed to add the tensile strenght of steel to the compressive strenght of mass concrete.



The Italian Air Force Hangar at Orvieto (Italy) was built in 1932 by Pier Luigi Nervi using Reinforced concrete


 * - Concrete Shell:** permits the erection of vast vaults and domes with a concrete and steel content so reduced that the thickness is comparatively less than that of an eggshell.



Los Manantiales Restaurant was built in 1958 by Dorothy Candela in Mexico City using Concrete Shell.


 * - Precast Concrete:** employs bricks, slabs, and supports made under optimal factory conditions to increase waterproofing and solidity, to decrease time and cost in erection, and to reduce expansion and contractions.



The Transamerica Pyramid was built in 1972 by William Pereira in San Francisco (USA), using Precast Concrete


 * - Prestressed Concrete:** provides bearing members into wich reinforcement is set under tension to produce a live force to resist a particular load.

The Vila Romana Residence was designed by MMBB Architects in 2006 using Prestressed Concrete. It is located at Sao Paulo, Brazil.