The power of cement

On Thursdays, after this, I like to cycle round the buildings of the Industrial School/Can Batlló to the Guastavino chimney. On moonlit nights if you glide the last 50m while staring at the 60m chimney top, it’s like coasting down some baked clay Milky Way. There’s a picture here of his Oyster Bar at New York Central, reconstructed after a fire, and through which I hope to cycle one day.

Guastavino’s techniques depended on new cement technology developed by Joseph Aspdin, a Leeds bricklayer. It’s said that the Chinese will be consuming 44% of world cement production by 2008, and I guess Three Gorges is also worth a rave, although one does kind of wonder when it’s all going to come tumbling down.

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