Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 5 / Cheap and Beautiful Ways of Forming Concrete

“A Vision of a Living World”, the third volume of “The Nature of Order” series, presents, for the first time, a full spectrum of Alexander’s and CES built and unbuilt works. The book describes hundreds of buildings, plans, neighborhoods, drawings, ...

One of the main topics of research, included in every building project, was to identify, early on in the design process, the material and techniques of construction. This would re-establish building as an art, and allow rapid shaping and adaptation, ...

The seat with its balustrade, built next to the tile workshop in Martinez, were built solely with sprayed concrete. Styrofoam or polysterene cut-outs to shape were used and placed against a backing of sheetrock, providing an ultra-low-cost formwork. Then concrete ...

Barrel vault ceiling and pitched roof, both made by using the gunite technique, constructed in six basic steps: 1) Fabrication of a full scale mockup of a section of the ceiling formwork, out of metal and plywood; 2) Construction of ...

Walls, columns, vaults, beams, ceilings, all made by gunite shot on a light weight and low cost guidework of lightweight wooden frame. Gunite is a high-strength concrete made of sharp sand and concrete, carried in air under high pressure, shot ...