No sun will shine in my day today ;
The high yellow moon wo n’t come out to play :
I say swarthiness has covered my light ,
And has changed my twenty-four hour period into dark , yeah
Bob Marley , " Concrete Jungle "
Slum life , political discord , an absentee father ; there ’s little that could keep reggae ace and eternal optimist Bob Marley down . That is , of grade , except for a deficiency of sun . While Marley ’s light stretch as a factory worker generate this gloomy looking at at life wall byconcrete , the traditionally dim building blocks are getting a makeover design to in the end rent some Light Within glisten in .
Translucent concrete is n’t just " see - through , " but the new building material draws on optical fiber to air light through it while hold the compactness that has literally made concrete the cornerstone of edifice around the world [ source : Litracon ] .
The fiber fibril , which attract and transmit both natural and unreal visible light , make up about 5 per centum of a semitransparent concrete block ’s surface volume . The fibers are mixed with traditional concrete components – water , sand and cementum – and are distributed equally throughout the airfoil . Through the lead translucent panels , a watcher can clearly see the outline of an target on the opposite side of the concrete . Despite this lucidness , however , translucent concrete retain its stout , crack resistant , burden - bear timbre [ source : Kim , Portland Cement Association ]
The light transmitting cloth is mostly believed to have been contrive by Magyar designer Aron Losonczi , who began uprise pre - fictional semitransparent concrete blocks he yell LiTraCon ( lighttransmittingconcrete ) in 2004 , just three years after graduate from Budapest ’s Technical University . Here , the manufacturer hand - molds large pieces of concrete , embedding M of strand of optical fiber in the material at the same sentence . The concrete is then cut into individual stoppage ( the smallest are about 48 x 14 inch , or 1.22 x .35 meters ) . The parallel fiber strand create two distinct grain - type surfaces : one bright and the other dark [ sources : Litracon , Graydon , Hanlon ] .
Now you know what translucent concrete is , but how – exactly – is it used ? Read on to find out .
How is Translucent Concrete Used?
Drab , dull and depressing , concretehas long been associated with penitential - similar situation edifice , slimy terrace and bare basements . With its light - channelise properties , however , translucent concrete has the major power to potentially transform the interior of concrete buildings , making them appear fresh , undetermined and spacious . While the glass and charge card roughage imbedded in the material make it monetary value - prohibitive in many large - scale leaf expression task , LiTraCon and other type of sparkle transmitting concrete are find their way into a smattering of construction around the globe [ sources : Inventables , Hanlon ] .
Since its development , semitransparent concrete has been used to make partition walls , steps , decorative roofing tile and even lamps . One of LiTraCon ’s first public employment , for example , was in a public square in Stockholm , Sweden . By mean solar day , the square ’s sidewalk looks as though it were made of average concrete , but the translucent surface lighting up at night when the dark-skinned light beneath the surface illuminate [ source : Inventables , Portland Cement Association ] . Meanwhile over in easterly Europe , the freshly quicken Bank of Georgia headquarters building features almost 300 square metre ( 3,229 square fundament ) of translucent concrete made by German manufacturing business LUCEM , includingLED - lit wall panel [ source : Lucem , Kim ] .
While translucent concrete is one of the most interesting new return on the historically loaded and uninspiring construction material , it ’s not the only one . In 2005 , Michigan ’s Department of Transportation used " pliable " concrete to retrofit abridgein Ypsilanti . sport coated fibre that slew within the cementum , this reinforced edifice cloth is 500 sentence more immune to cracks and about 40 percent lighter than traditional concrete . At the same time , manufacturing business have also developed " self - reinforcing " concrete , which draws on steel fibers to make the cloth more resistant to fissure and bridge those that occur [ rootage : Hanlon , Rao ] .
Concrete : It bends , fixes its own breaks and now it even lets some Christ Within in . Check out the links on the next page for more information on concrete , how it works and how it can be used .
It ’s no minuscule miracle that in my 30 - plus age on this planet I ’ve yet to walk into a closed in glass or filmdom door . I am , consort to many who know me , a " dreamer . " Or , harmonize to some of the woman I ’ve dated , " upstage . " Either way , I ’m often lost in my own idea , whether it be walking down the street without a clue of my original destination or at a standard candle - lit dinner party vaguely suspecting that the someone across from me just say something deep and compelling , but having not the faintest thought as to what it was . So while I enjoy a hearty joke at any unsuspecting dufus who – so mad about being the first person to the barbeque – does n’t substantiate that semi - transparent room access in front of him is close before walking into it , I also realize that it is only a matter of time until I am that dufus . Now that we have translucent concrete to look forwards to , my oblivion may be a scrap more abominable .
