Concrete- The Honest Medium.

Sand, water, cement. Very basic, almost ubiquitous materials that can be obtained almost anywhere on the planet. This is what makes concrete such a truthful material. Truthful? Absolutely. Let me explain. In my years of schooling as a landscape architect, I often noticed that the best designs were often not the ones that received the best grades. The common thread to what did receive the best grades was graphic presentation, that is, how well the design, good or bad, was drawn. To the artists out there, this may sound a good thing. However, in landscape architecture, as well as art, there is something more meaningful we should search beyond mere aeshtetic trickery. This certainly doesnt mean that a thing should not be beautiful, that is certainly not my point. It should be our goal to fuse good design with aesthetic beauty. But one should not overpower the other, we must search for balance. A good design that isnt nice to look at is as bad as a bad design that fools us into believing it is pretty. To take this example to the application of sculpture, consider a perfectly square block of material. The design of this cube is definitely lacking interest or meaning. If this cube is made of highly figured marble, polished to reveal the intracies of the stone, this will be a quite appealing object. Consider then, the same cube, made of concrete. Would anyone love this peice? Why not, the design is the same. The material is different though. The artist of the granite cube uses the inherent beauty of the stone itslef as a crutch for his poor design. Take away the granite, replace it with concrete, and the honesty of the design is revealed.

In the 1950's and 1960's, even into the 70's somewhat, concrete was growing in its popularity and use as material for public art and decoration. This was made possible by several different social and technological advances. Technoligically, the use of rebar, meshes, admixes, and colorants, as well as the increasing affordabilty of the medium, made this a material that was actively being explored and utilized by cutting edge architects, designers, and artists. Socially, a grass roots movement for back to the earth living, of active democracy, of the importance of public concisousness, public spaces, and public art, were growing. Dont believe me that a persons social responsiblities and involvements led to the increased use of concrete? Consider the 80's then. As the dream of a socially connected population dwindled, and individuality arose, of the destruction of small businesses and communities for the large, power weildeing corporate culture rose, concrete almost completely dissappeared from our public spaces, our cities and buildings, and the public eye. It was all replaced by highly polished granite blocks, imported from worlds away to decorate the temples of commerce and business. Concrete is too simple a material to line the corporate nest with.

The thing i liked most about most of the desins of bygone days was with the use of concrete, a simple materail could be transformed into any shape easily and affordably. By the honesty of the material, age old methods of shadow lines, patterns, repetintion, became important.