Bubbles in the concrete

Omnipresent in the built landscape, the environmental consequences of reinforced concrete are beginning to overshadow its technical prowess. As an architect, Alia Bengana has learned to design and build with it, as if no other material existed. However, between 2020 and 2021, together with Claude Baechtold and Antoine Harari, she conducted an investigation into the reasons for our addiction to concrete and the alternatives that are on the increase. The album Béton : Enquête en Sables Mouvants revisits this investigation, then published by Heidi News, this time with drawings by Antoine Maréchal, who takes us from the Sahara desert to the Vaud countryside to tell the story of this profound questioning of such an established economic sector. From site to text to images, new links are forged between resources, construction and lifestyle.