Concrete is second only to water as the world’s most ubiquitous and abundant product—around three tons are produced every year for every man woman and child on the planet. The universal medium of construction, it is often blamed for making everywhere the same, erasing nature, and obliterating local differences. Yet as well as being one of the basics of modern life, it is also a medium of culture, through which all kinds of desires and differences are inflected, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. Adrian Forty’s interest has been in how to make sense of this generic substance, which often seems to be taken to stand for matter itself.

The lecture will look at some of the ways in which concrete has operated as a cultural medium, and at how it has affected our perceptions of ourselves and of our relationships to others in the world. Usually regarded as the material of fixity and stability, it turns out, on the contrary, to be one of the most labile substances around.

Forty is the Louis Kahn Scholar in Residence at the American Academy in Rome in the spring 2016 and emeritus professor of the history of architecture for the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London.

The lecture will be held in English.