Aesthetic Improvement by Innovative Translucent Concrete

Abstract

Abstract: Concrete has been used since Roman times for the development of infrastructure and housing, but its basic components have remained the same. Three ingredients make up the dry mix: coarse aggregate, consisting of larger pieces of material like stones or gravel; fine aggregate, made up of smaller particles such as sand; and cement, a very fine powder material that binds the mix togetherwhen water is added. Just a few decades ago concrete was often misunderstood, disliked and captured by its image fixed due to the rapid urbanization of the 1960s. But since that time, concrete has made considerable progress, not only in technical terms, but also inaesthetic terms. It is no longer the heavy, cold and grey material of the past; it has become beautiful and lively. By research and innovation, newly developed concrete has been created which is more resistant, lighter, white or coloured, etc. Concrete has learned to adapt to almost all new challenges that appeared. In 2001, the concept of translucent concrete was first put forward by Hungarian architect Aron Losonzi at the Technical University of Budapest, and the first translucent concrete block was successfully produced by mixing large amount of glass fibre into concrete in 2003, named as LiTraCon. The translucent concrete mainly focuses on transparency and its objective of application pertains to green technology and artistic finish. It is the “combination of optical fibres and fine concrete”. At present, green structures focus greatly on saving energy with indoor thermal systems. Therefore, it is imperative to develop a new functional material to satisfy the structure in terms of safety monitoring (such as damage detection, fire warning), environmental protection and energy saving and artistic modelling. Due to globalization and construction of high-rise building, the space between buildings is reduced; this causes to increasing the use of non- renewable energy sources, so therefore there is a need of smart construction technique like green building and indoor thermal system. Translucent concrete (Transparent concrete) is new technique different from normal concrete