Enlightened Architecture

#### "X-Ray Architecture" by Ken Shulman, in Metropolis (Apr. 2001), 61 W. 23rd St., New York, N.Y. 10010.

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For four years, Bill Price, a lecturer in the University of Houston College of Architecture, has been working on an invention that could be architecture’s next cool thing, dramatically changing the way buildings (and other things) look and function: translucent concrete.

Price’s quest began when he was director of research and development for the Office of Metropolitan Architecture, the Rotterdam firm of avant-garde architect Rem Koolhaas. "Could we make the concrete translucent?" Koolhaas asked at a meeting about a concert hall the firm was designing. "Koolhaas may have been the first to utter the words," notes Shulman, a Metropolis contributing editor, "but there’s no question that it’s Price’s baby."

Price began a systematic analysis of concrete to find out which of its elements—aggregate (usually crushed gravel), binder (customarily cement), reinforcement (normally steel rods), and form—or which combination of elements, could best be made to transmit light. He came up with a translucent concrete made from a crushed-glass aggregate and a plastic binder; for reinforcement, he also turned to plastic. The initial samples of translucent concrete appeared two years ago. Lit from underneath, says Shulman, a sample poured block of translucent concrete "seems to breathe light like the sun breaking through winter ice."

"Price believes his material could be used in construction as well as for design objects: bathtubs, toilets, tables, even lamps and lampshades," Shulman writes. But many questions—about thermal dynamics, seismic stability, and other crucial matters—remain. Tests so far are promising, Shulman reports, but large-scale applications may be many months, even years, away. The cost of the new material is likely to be high: perhaps five times greater than that of traditional concrete. But the price may be right if Price is right about the promise of see-through concrete.