Tell Me Concrete Stories

Enza Migliore, Mirna Zordan​

Tell me Concrete Stories dives into the profound impact of concrete on urban life through the unique perspectives of construction workers, exploring how perceptions evolve from bystanders to builders, and how this material shapes cities and human experiences, culminating in design research aiming to inform future urban visions.

Shenzhen is a case of extreme urbanization. The city has developed in an iconic, efficient, and innovative centre raising from 30.000 to 15 millions of habitants in less than 50 years of life. Such fast urbanization has never been seen before neither at a local nor at a global scale, signing up Shenzhen as world-record city.

Tell Me Concrete Stories wants to understand and interpret the city through the construction workers’ intimate, social, and physiological relationships with the material they are shaping. The goal is to characterize the cognitive and emotional properties of concrete as the fundamental interface of people with the built environment, transcending its merely technological, functional, and progressive nature.