Concrete Art by Transparent House

If you’ve ever worked with concrete (or if concrete as ever worked with you—a more likely scenario), you know a thing or two about its pre-finished aesthetic qualities. To make short work of this evaluation… it’s ugly stuff, essentially appearing like an amalgam of grey sand and rock. Add to this the notoriously unwieldy bulk and certain undesirable qualities of silica, and you have a building material that’s not for the faint of heart (or weak of back). Concrete may be difficult to work with, but it’s definitely here to stay: its durability and relatively low cost make it very necessary to modern building. And its green-quotient is steadily improving.

Through technological advancements in supplementary cementing materials, manufacturers can “decrease energy and resource consumption, reduce CO2 emissions, and lessen the negative environmental impact.” Even so, I still tend to laugh when certain people (mainly my wife) describe it as beautiful. But that was before I saw the likes of Concrete Art by Transparent House, a San Fran-based company that describes itself as a “3D Design and Visualization Studio.” The aforesaid descriptor shrouds the technology of Concrete Art in a bit of mystery, since Transparent House is not entirely forthcoming as regards exactly how they inscribe stunningly-beautiful and amazingly-intricate floral patterns onto finished cement. Here’s a bit of a teaser from them: “we’ve created a concept allowing for application of any pattern either when pouring or afterwards when the concrete has set.” The images accompanying this copy seem real enough: tenacious tendrils and bursting buds of what look to be peonies, lilies, and perhaps wild penstemon exploring every inch of a variety of tawny, ashen, and ebony concrete floors. The effect is stunning and texturally appealing, imparting a baroque flourish to an often-understated element.

In describing their Concrete Art, Transparent House says “it’s always exciting for us to discover new and uncustomary aspects in objects around us, and no less exciting to share our findings with you.” I’d like to press them a bit on this last point, because I’m equally excited—enchanted, in fact—by their achievements in decorative concrete, and I’d like to know a lot more…