Concrete

Turning aggression into art, Israeli designer Itay Ohaly's Fracture Bench explores the effects of smashing materials.

For the desktop itself, there's the Merge Concrete Desk Set (from $48 to $178 for the entire set). Made from stainless steel and concrete, these coloful designs unite function with a fun take on form.

The Coleman Bar Stool is a sophisticated design that blends mixed materials, color, and geometry to create a distinctive seating option for a kitchen bar. This stool is comprised of a sculptural powder-coated steel base that is met with a hand-cast concrete seat. Shown in Aspen Green.

Concrete Collaborative demonstrated their polished concrete tiles, decked out in vibrant aquamarine colors.

@concretecollaborative shared a shot of their colorful concrete tiles.

A mesh steel bridge sits above a cast concrete outdoor canopy on the patio. Concrete floors are polished on the inside, and kept rough on the outside. A pine door leading to a lower level bedroom adds warmth.

The horizontal orientation of the cement board, painted black, creates a line of vision that leads to the forest, while its deep overhangs help shield the sun. A small lawn, gravel, and native grass weave the wooded setting in the residence’s landscape design.

Sofia von Ellrichshausen and Mauricio Pezo’s reinforced concrete home in Chile stacks rooms for working in a vertical column atop horizontally-oriented spaces for living.

Show your workspace you mean business with this weighty, monochromatic set of desktop pieces designed by Magnus Petterson for Areaware.

Acoustic Shells (Flanagan Lawrence: Littlehampton, United Kingdom) A visual response to the sand dunes and sea near the shore, these whisper-thin concrete curves were shaped with material sprayed on mesh, measuring merely 100 millimeters in spots. The twin bell curves function as a bandstand on one side, and a larger version of a seashell on the other—it plays back the sea’s gentle rhythms.

A spacious deck was created as part of the addition. A cantilevered concrete bench stretches out to the rear garden and complements the adjacent concrete wall.

Concrete stairs leading up to a sleeping loft are illuminated with wall sconces.

After purchasing a thin, L-shaped lot in Tokyo, Tamotsu Nakada asked architect and friend Koji Tsutsui to create an open-plan concrete home to fit the site. Photo by Iwan Baan.

Wrk-Shp “Part of our ethos is that we are not fashion designers. We aren’t furniture designers. We aren’t architects. We are designers, and we can apply our vision to any medium and put our spin on it,” says Wrk-Shp co-founder Airi Isoda. Demonstrating that flexibility, this simple concrete planter can lie flush against the wall, hang independently, or be dropped into a table.

Inspired by an old technique that Le Corbusier experimented with in the 1930s, Gregory Katz has imprinted Lot Four Two Four’s name on the exterior wall at the entrance, using laser-cut Perspex on concrete. Read more about this South African concrete abode here.

Light Show: Resolution: 4 pierced a concrete wall edging the exterior stairwell with acrylic cylinders to make a clever lighting installation. The cylinders transmit sunlight during the day, Tanney explains, and at night the installation becomes a “backlit constellation” triggered by motion sensors.

Pros: Concrete countertops are durable, resistant to heat, and can be less expensive than natural stone, especially when completed as a DIY project. Cons: Concrete must be sealed before being used; otherwise, its porous nature means that it will stain very easily.

The home's different levels create a playful experience for the inhabitants. The concrete floor references the building’s past use as a garage for ambulances.

The unadorned street-facing facade of the house belies the light, open, tranquil space inside.