About the project
Concrete, although already known to the ancient Romans, has become the all-purpose building material in recent decades.
Yet at first glance, one thing seems to be at odds with another: concrete and light transmission. Or does it? This was precisely the focus of the course “Building Materials Technology—Advanced” during the winter semester of 2025/2026.
Light concrete, also known as translucent concrete, combines the solidity and strength of traditional concrete with light transmission. This transparency is achieved by integrating light-conducting materials into the concrete matrix without significantly compromising its load-bearing capacity.
The goal of the “LICHTBETON” seminar was to create a translucent exposed-concrete object. The students designed the objects themselves and subsequently fabricated the formwork. Finally, the objects were cast with self-compacting concrete (“Flowstone”) in the concrete laboratory.
We would like to thank Winfried Schmidt and Martin Wossning for their support in the laboratory and with formwork construction, respectively. We would also like to thank Dyckerhoff GmbH, Harold Scholz & Co. GmbH, and GCP Germany GmbH for providing the materials.
The result is 12 unique objects in exposed concrete finish, which, through the special integration of light-conducting fibers, allow concrete to “shine” in an entirely new way. The works will be presented at various events, both internally and externally, in the coming months.
