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Concrete vs. Steel
Concrete vs. Steel
Concrete vs. Steel
ILAC
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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
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
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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
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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
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
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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.
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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
https://www.nachi.org/history-of-concrete.htm
Madsen, J., 2020. Which Is The Better Building Material? Concrete Or Steel?. [online]
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