Extra-Ordinary Concrete Info < 6 of 7 >

The project explores poured-in-place sandblasted concrete to transform ordinary materials into something unfamiliar. In a process lasting months, we started with the stone, looking at over fifty different combinations of aggregate before settling on the right mix, and then studied different sizes of the chosen stone mix. Once this variable was fixed, we experimented with different sands, cements and admixtures (or their omission) to finalize the recipe in an iterative process involving hundreds of samples. After the final mix was determined, we experimented with different levels of sandblasting, done by hand, to achieve the right texture. A large, full size mockup was created on site to test the mix and all the different details which would be encountered.