From skyscraper to Mosque: Sky is the Limit for Concrete

What is it that binds the Gladesville Bridge, Australia Square, the Punchbowl Mosque and the Sydney Opera House together?

They were all made of concrete and, on Monday, were named by a group of eminent architects, engineers and building experts in the top 10 most outstanding concrete public architectural works in Australia of the past 90 years.Each of these structures pushed boundaries in its era for the use of a building material that chairman of the judging panel Peter Poulet, a former NSW government architect, said was a “utilitarian tool that has been repositioned to become sexy”.

When the Gladesville Bridge was completed in 1964, it was the world’s longest single-span concrete arch.Australia Square broke new ground in 1967, when the Harry Seidler designed 50-floor building became not only Sydney’s highest skyscraper, but the tallest reinforced concrete structure in the world.The UNESCO world heritage-listed Sydney Opera House was made of reinforced concrete blocks glued together with an industrial adhesive, a method that had never been attempted anywhere in the world.