Transparent Concrete
and Glass Fibers

The model posed next to a solid stack of seemingly ordinary concrete blocks. In a typical “now you see her, now you don’t” fashion, she stepped behind the wall. To the audience’s amazement, she didn’t disappear from sight. Was this a case where the sand (cement, water and aggregate) was quicker than the eye?

Hardly. It was but one example of the remarkable types of concrete on display at an exhibit organized by the National Building Museum in downtown Washington, D.C. Called Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete, the exhibit features innovations that range from translucent blocks and photoengraved building fronts to revolutionary materials that promise to change the rules of construction as we know them today.

Oh, I see
We all know that concrete can be concocted to look like many things, but who would have thought that the rock-solid substance could be a substitute for a window? As it turns out, a handful of academic and commercial researchers are not just dreaming of this, they’re busy making it happen.

The product that seems to have captured the most attention is LiTraCon, an acronym for “light transmitting concrete.” Invented in 2001 by Hungarian architect Áron Losonczi, the translucent concrete block is being manufactured by the German company LiTraCon and should be on the market by the end of this year.