1

CONCRETE VS. STEEL

Concrete vs. Steel

Oscar Javier Rodríguez Uribe

ILAC
2
CONCRETE VS. STEEL

Concrete Vs. Steel

According to World Steel Association, in 2019, global crude steel production rose up to

1,869.9 million tonnes (Mt), and the global cement consumption broke the 4 billion tonnes

borderline and reached 4.08 billion tonnes at the end of 2019 according to Cemnet.com (2020),

clarifying that the cement is the most important raw material in concrete. So, these numbers

before are an incredible number, considering how little it needs to build a 1,000 square feet

house. Certainly, throughout the years these number have been rising until reach these recent

statistics, that is, the exponential growth of each of these materials leads us to think of them as

two opponents, which leads us to imagine whether we could personify them in human beings and

put them in the arena for the fight. How wonderful would be the battle between these two

construction’s colossi. Both of them ready (availability), strong (safety) and beautiful

(aesthetics). Who will be declared the champion? Let us begin the fight, but first know briefly

their ancient history.

Both steel and concrete have an ancient history, from the beginning of human

civilization, the regular people had tried to build a shelter to protect themselves from the weather

and dangers, also to congregate with their own and settle down, but their buildings and

construction materials were unstable, weak and no perdurable. However, it was until 1,300 BC in

Middle East, that some builders beginning to coat their outsides of pounded clay with a thin lay

of burn limestone which reacted chemically with gasses in the air and form a hard surface. We

could not call it already cement but was the starting. (Gromicko, n.d.). Although the history of

steel dates back to 1,800 BC with the discovery of iron as an ore, it was until the 1,800’s AD that
3
CONCRETE VS. STEEL
steel was popularized and became in bars as we know now. In middle 1800s, one of the first

world's fairs was held in London. In there, the Crystal Palace was built with cast iron and glass

for the event, and almost everything inside was made of iron and steel. The world had never seen

anything like it. Then this alloy iron and carbon called steel was popularized in first office

buildings. The rest is history. (Schifman, 2020). Both materials, concrete and steel are a

combination of other materials, however the way that construction steel always comes is in bars

and the concrete is the perfectly dosed mixture of sand, crushed stone and cement. Nowadays,

both materials and their components are widely available, however, in case of concrete, the

cement is available in every corner, you can find a cement bag or a hundred such easy as a soda

and the others components the gravel and sand you can find it on the banks of the river or is very

often find quarries nears to towns or cities. On the other hand, the steel also can find it

everywhere and there is only have one component, you can find it in bars or elements, although

China is a big supplier also is a big consumer but many countries around the world are steel

producers and can satisfy the high demand of the rest of the world. (Concrete vs. Structural Steel,

2020).

Second element to contrast both materials is safety. Let us see an example. In 2001, when

the World Trade Center was attacked by planes fulling in fuel, exposed a weakness about the

steel face extremely high temperatures because the steel became soften and melt. However, with

the addition of passive fire protection, such a spray-on fireproofing, buildings built structural

steel can sustain greater temperatures providing additional safety. On the contrary, the concrete

structures resist better the extremely high temperatures, also reinforced concrete offers and

unvaluable resistance to impacts and explosion, moreover its inherent mass and heaviness makes
4
CONCRETE VS. STEEL
concrete buildings resistible to fast wind and perform well even under flying debris impacts.

Both concrete and steel, are a safety and efficient choice in seismic zones. (Madsen, 2020).

Finally, the aesthetics plays an important rol when it has to design a building. Alfred

Gerosa (n.d.) said “Remember, concrete seeks the form”, so, it can be shape anything you want

with concrete, because the concrete is more plastic, more malleable, lets it form. Then, the

concrete leads the design possibilities and aesthetics to another level because allows to explore

deeply the designer creative. The Sydney Opera House is an excellent example to express the

infinity possibilities of design, something unthought with structural steel, the way that the

architect designed and built the thin shells one above the other leads to think in architect as a

craftsman. But it was no possible without concrete. On the other hand, the structural steel focus

mostly in vertical elements like buildings or skyscraper, also the structural steel is so rigid that

leads generally to design in a cubical way, which it means standardization, so, structural steel

truly works in multifamily buildings and office buildings like our first example about World

Trade Center, and also allows big areas without columns which works fantastic in office

buildings. However, does not means the impossibility of aesthetics. Just means, there is another

way to design, too much pure, more lineal, more essential. Instead, concrete style design it could

be more organic in its design possibilities. (Madsen, 2020).

To conclude, briefly we can understand if it would have a combat among concrete and

steel both has winning possibilities. Talking about availability both materials are easy to get and

the world production support the high demand. According to safety almost it can be inferring the

concrete will be the winner because is heavy and strong and fire resistant, nevertheless the steel
5
CONCRETE VS. STEEL
also can acquire some of these qualities such fire resistant using a fireproofing spray-on. And

finally, the aesthetics depends what kind of building it would be built, the concrete allows more

plastic shapes and leads up the architect to design as a craftsman with his pottery, and the steel

allows standardization and works really good in office building designs. So, to answer the

question of first paragraph which it says, who will be declared the champion? We have to

inferred according this research there is neither a winner nor a loser. There are a great and

fantastic construction materials which worked yesterday works now and they will be work.
6
CONCRETE VS. STEEL
REFERENCES

Edmonton Structural Steel Fabrication. 2020. Concrete Vs. Structural Steel. [online] Available

at: http://northern-weldarc.com/concrete-vs-structural-steel/

Global crude steel output increases by 3.4% in 2019. (2020, January 27). Retrieved from

https://www.worldsteel.org/media-centre/press-releases/2020/Global-crude-steel-output-

increases-by-3.4--in-2019.html

Gromicko, Nick, 2020. The History Of Concrete. [online] Nachi.org. Available at:

https://www.nachi.org/history-of-concrete.htm

Madsen, J., 2020. Which Is The Better Building Material? Concrete Or Steel?. [online]

Buildings.com. Available at: https://www.buildings.com/news/industry-

news/articleid/2511/title/which-is-the-better-building-material-concrete-or-steel-

Schifman, Jonathan, 2020. The Entire History Of Steel. [online] Popular Mechanics. Available

at: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a20722505/history-of-

steel/

World cement consumption rises by 2.8% in 2019. (2020, January 24). Retrieved from

https://www.cemnet.com/News/story/168163/world-cement-consumption-rises-by-2-8-

in-2019.html