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transparent concrete (litracon.hu) ?


has anyone found a definitive answer as to whether this stuff is real or a hoax? or gotten samples?

 
Apr 24, 07 12:51 pm
a-f

It's real!

Apr 24, 07 12:55 pm  · 
 · 
SuperBeatledud

[url=http://www.designcommunity.com/discussion/30632.html]Quoted by Per on designcommunity.com[url]

"Hi

Why shuld light not pass a concrete wall ?
Or some light embeded light or even make the wall into a screen, what is so difficult about that ?"

Damn Straight Per!

Apr 24, 07 12:56 pm  · 
 · 
n_

It's real. Samples are about 50 euros plus shipping cost (add another 20 bucks).

Apr 24, 07 12:56 pm  · 
 · 
SuperBeatledud

whoops

Quoted by Per on designcommunity.com

"Hi

Why shuld light not pass a concrete wall ?
Or some light embeded light or even make the wall into a screen, what is so difficult about that ?"

Damn Straight Per!

Apr 24, 07 12:56 pm  · 
 · 
el jeffe

translucent not transparent.

Apr 24, 07 12:59 pm  · 
 · 
lletdownl

its definetly real, its impressive stuff as well, its compressive strength is high, it wouldnt be a structural liablity... plus its beautiful...
sizes of the blocks seem limited though and its more or less a strictly cmu type modular system... imagine how amazing this would be if they could figure out a way to pour it in place....

Apr 24, 07 1:03 pm  · 
 · 
xtbl

where is the rebar and mortar?

Apr 24, 07 1:05 pm  · 
 · 
b3tadine[sutures]

mortar is there, but this is not a bearing wall, more like glass block i believe.

Apr 24, 07 1:15 pm  · 
 · 
PerCorell

I do not find it interesting if the concrete are translumant ,I find it more interesting, to have light evolve where a person situate. Kind of a lamp following you ,by walls floors and celing glow , where you are in the structure.
It shuld be easly provided by fabric optic fiber, this only ask the chaos of fiber optics embedded in the concrete to be distribuated to a fysical model such things shuld be easy , and then a computed building frammework realy would make a difference.

Apr 24, 07 2:56 pm  · 
 · 
PerCorell

Kind of Total Digital Tapestry.

Apr 24, 07 2:58 pm  · 
 · 
mdlerweed

it does look very beautiful.. but doesn't it's use as a 'glass bock' type construction nulify the goal of a translucent matierial with compressive strength?

Apr 24, 07 3:07 pm  · 
 · 
PerCorell

Structure compensate strength.

Apr 24, 07 3:22 pm  · 
 · 
nambypambics

vindpust, there was something like that in the last Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial - did you check it out?

Apr 24, 07 3:25 pm  · 
 · 
silverlake

Nice stuff... reminds me of the skin at the Beinecke Library at Yale...

Apr 24, 07 3:26 pm  · 
 · 
PerCorell

No I havn't seen sny of it, and I know just the basics of what we shuld expect possible sweet details , guess these things will prove how great things acturly can be.

Apr 24, 07 3:32 pm  · 
 · 
lletdownl

i cant recal where i found the information (i believe i requested it directly from litracon people) but i used this stuff in a project during school. I had, at one point, a spec sheet which when compared with typical cmu showed it had virtually identical structural capabilities... so i dont think there is anything to say that it cant be a bearing wall, im almost certain it can be.

rebar running inside the block as might occur in cmu would be amazingly expressive... it makes me drool just thinking about it

Apr 24, 07 3:38 pm  · 
 · 
Carl Douglas (agfa8x)

A student at one of the universities where I teach approximated translucent concrete by embedding heavyweight nylon fishing line in a fine concrete mix. It wasn't half as see-through as the sample above, but the sun glinted distinctly through it, and you could see when something passed behind it.

Apr 24, 07 3:55 pm  · 
 · 
mdler

reminds me of this stuff we use in our office...i think it is called glass

Apr 24, 07 4:03 pm  · 
 · 
mdler

btw, glass has the same compressive strength as concrete

Apr 24, 07 4:04 pm  · 
 · 
KEG

when LitraCon emerged a few years ago, did every single person in your studio use it? That was my experience and we all thought we were so damn original. I remember contacting the guy (in Hungary?) and he said it wasn't available in the US yet and that samples were about $200.

I wonder if it has actually been used in the US yet? All the cool projects are probably in Scandinavia & Eastern Europe...as usual.

It will be interesting, if they start to sell it in the US, to see if they appropriate a standard US building proportion like a CMU block...or if its standard dimension will stay as developed in Europe.


Apr 24, 07 4:58 pm  · 
 · 
Tony Snow

I saw Bill Price's translucent concrete at the National Building Museum 2 years ago. It doesn't seem like that product has gone anywhere though.

Apr 24, 07 5:56 pm  · 
 · 

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