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Concrete
Edited by William Hall
Ah, concrete. Has there ever been a more divisive material? Regular readers will not be remotely surprised to find us singing the praises of a hefty book devoted exclusively to the sculptural qualities of the grey stuff. Concrete gets down and dirty with the notorious material, unashamedly singing its praises through a series of captioned photographs that run the full range of concrete's structural, sculptural, textural and technological applications. Sure, there's plenty here that a savvy Wallpaper* reader will know like the back of their hand, but Hall and his team have done a good job of digging up the more esoteric examples of concrete design. A weighty book with which to administer beatings to doubters.
Published by Phaidon, £29.95; www.phaidon.com
Writer: Jonathan Bell