Cool Stuff Archive
Pervious Concrete in Space
David Liguori, of Bay Area Pervious Concrete (BAPC), and team from the NASA Ames Research Center recently worked together to design a new form of pervious concrete that will be used during inflight missions. This new concrete will aid them in their synthetic tree concept, the Self-Adhearing Bioreactors (SABR).
Stealth, Atlanta
The 33-foot-high sculpture is made out of 52 cubic yards of concrete and 8 tons of steel reinforcing bars. The structure is founded on a 16 in. thick mat foundation which supports its 65,000 lb weight. Although Stealth has characteristics of steel, it is made entirely of solid black concrete.
Bamboo: Making Concrete Both Stronger and more Sustainable
Steel-reinforced concrete is the most common building material in the world, and developing countries use close to 90% of the cement and 80% of the steel consumed by the global construction sector. However, very few developing countries have the ability or resources to produce their own steel or cement. According to Future Cities Laboratories, steel however is not irreplaceable. There’s a material alternative that grows in the tropical zone of our planet, an area that coincides closely with the developing world: bamboo.
Andrew Jackson's The Hermitage: Pervious Concrete
Dusty and Sons Concrete installed pervious concrete at President Andrew Jackson's home, The Hermitage in Hermitage, Tenn., in 2014. Installed to improve drainage in the area directly in front of the home's front door, the walkway also needed to continue the look and feel of the pea gravel carriage drive leading to the front door. Utilizing colorants, the pervious concrete achieved its goals and is a gorgeous addition to this historic property.