Concrete

by Stephen Parnell, Ian Bogost (Series Editor), Christopher Schaberg (Series Editor)

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

Concrete has an image problem. Portrayed as boring, cheap, and thoughtless, it is often considered synonymous with bad architecture. For many, concrete is architecture gone wrong – dogmatic, ugly, and as miserably grey as English drizzle.

Stephen Parnell's Concrete is an apologia of concrete, second only to water as the world's most consumed material. From the personal, intimate scale of jewelry to the monumental scale of Brutalist architecture, Parnell explores the personality of concrete and how it is embedded and embodied in everyday and familiar objects. He revels in concrete's ambiguity and contradictory qualities, from its sensitivity to the tiniest imprint to its immense compressive strength in hydroelectric dams, and traces how concrete is both the ultimate unaesthetic material as well as the quintessential building block of modernity.

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

Published September 17, 2026

Reviews

[Liralen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here we meet the first of concrete's famous paradoxes: concrete is both inherently and simultaneously precise and messy, depending on the material's state and on one's viewpoint. (loc. 99*)

Back to my favourite nonfiction series! In Concrete, Parnell dives into...you guessed it...concrete. Parnell is an architect, so concrete is something he knows well, being as it is a major player in contemporary architecture. (My architect husband, when asked, described concrete as "almost like a mythical material" but said that he's against its use now, on climate grounds...but more on that in a moment.)

Much of this book is about architecture, and the types of architecture that the development of concrete has enabled. Brutalism is the obvious style, of course, but Parnell argues that concrete has a great deal more versatility than is often ascribed to it. I highlighted some lines because they interested me, but I highlighted many more because there were so many buildings to look up later (I'm particularly charmed by Ricardo Bofill's reinvention of a disused cement factory into a living and working space).

I was concerned for a while that the book would not touch on the climate impact of concrete, but of course I worried too soon: [Concrete] is responsible for about 8 percent of global CO₂ emissons, more than aviation (2.5 percent) and not far behind agriculture (12 percent). [...] if it were a country, [the cement industry] would be the fifth largest emitter (behind China, the United States, India, and Russia. (loc. 1418) Or, well, perhaps I didn't worry too soon, because I knew concrete wasn't great for the environment, but I didn't know the numbers were so damning. Or consider this:

One recent study estimated that 14 percent of the United States' and 60 percent of China's coastlines are now made of concrete. (loc. 1431)

What a grim image! Concrete has its place...but it's time to consider other, more environmentally friendly options.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

[Alissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Bloomsbury Academic for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This is the first Object Lessons book I have read, and I’m glad I stumbled upon the series. I’m a fan of books like Salt or Cod by Mark Kurlansky, so a book that delves deep into one narrow topic is something I enjoy. The length on this one was just right, long enough to give a good overview of the topic, but not so long that it got repetitive or dull.

The author is an architect and professor who has been working with concrete one way or another his whole career. This book feels like when you have an intelligent friend who has gone down a rabbit hole and now really wants to tell you all about it. He cites architects, art critics, philosophers, authors, historians, professors, politicians, anthropologists, even Peppa Pig’s dad and Sir Thomas More.

Parnell discusses a wide range of uses of concrete - apartment blocks, churches, skateparks, art pieces, bridges, parking garages, wartime installations, famous and infamous walls. He explains how we use and interact with it, how ubiquitous it is. But while this is an ode to concrete, it is also tempered by an explanation of the environmental consequences of continuing to both produce and destroy concrete.

My only complaint about this book is the lack of pictures - there were only about 15 included. This may be the standard for an Object Lessons book, which isn’t a coffee table book. But I found that the author’s descriptions of amazing buildings or art installations or innovative ways to use concrete made me want to see what was being described. There are other books in the series that probably don’t need a lot of images, like Barcode, Golf Ball, or Hyphen. Maybe concrete is too interesting?

Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. It’s written in a conversationally academic tone and will appeal to people who like to learn new things. The length means it isn’t overwhelming and if you’re interested in learning more, all the references are included in detailed footnotes. I’ll read more from this series.

[Alex Sarll]

"Whether born of utopian dreams or dystopian nightmares, concrete transforms fluid possibility into uncompromising permanence, petrifying whatever hopes and fears we pour into it." Although he talks about his subject as at once ubiquitous and ignored, essential yet unloved, Stephen Parnell is well aware that his Object Lesson arrives at a time when a reassessment is already well underway, to the point that in some circles love letters to brutalist are now as hard to avoid as the style once was. But while we go through some familiar staging posts here (le Corbusier, the undercroft, Ronan Point), and the book would work particularly well as an introduction, it does have enough to still be of interest even if you've already read your John Grindrod and done a Barbican tour or two. For one thing, the author is no dilettante, having worked directly with concrete as a slumpy (don't worry, he explains it) when younger. But he also takes a more international approach than you sometimes find in first world accounts, giving Brasilia the space it deserves, and providing an interesting account of 'Africapitalism'. Like many other volumes in the series, at least in their Netgalley ARC form, it could really have done with a closer edit – no matter how bad the geopolitical situation, 'tragedy' on two successive lines won't help matters, and occasionally sentences end up saying the opposite of what's clearly intended. But for the most part he uses language with the same thoughtfulness he wishes more architects would bring to his chosen material. Plus, I never knew that parkour was the creation of (David) Belle and Sebastien (Foucan).

[Goatllama · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe that this is my seventeenth(!) entry in the Object Lessons series, short books that focus on the hidden history of everyday objects. Although the concept is excellent, I have had a very up and down relationship with the series, it seems that I alternate between “very interesting” and “not at all”. “Snack” by Eurie Dahn was my last interesting outing, “Lipstick” by Eileen G'Sell definitely fell into the “not at all” category, and now we come to “Concrete” by Stephen Parnell, which surprisingly is right in the middle, rather interesting but still leaves a lot to be desired.

So what can we say about concrete? It is definitely something that we deal with on a daily basis, something that we usually take for granted. But in many ways, concrete is actually what defines the modern world, from sidewalks to buildings to dams to bridges to skateboard parks. Mr. Parnell is an architect, and this colors his approach and personal experience. Focusing on how concrete is used to build just about everything, we see not only the hulking exposure of Brutalism but also the rounded structures of abandoned WWII listened posts. The imprints and patterns left by the forms used to mold concrete can be a part of the designer’s expression just as much as the structures left behind. The author doesn’t shy away from the environmental impacts of concrete as well, leading to global warming and climate change.

So there we have it. An appealing overview of how concrete has shaped our civilization and how it continues to influence our future. As usual in this series, both interesting and educational.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Bloomsbury Academic via NetGalley. Thank you!

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Object Lessons book. I chose it to be "Concrete" because I find the subject to be interesting. Concrete is probably the embodiment of anthropocene.

Parnell approached this subject from an architect's point of view. He brought examples of buildings and art that were made of concrete. While discussion over why these builds are important and why they're made was nice, I felt like it did not actually talk about concrete, the material. The book's cover is a bridge, something that was mentioned in passing. This book mostly talked about concrete as a material that can actually be used with "soul" in it. But I wish there was more "boring" examples of concrete just being there for purpose, like with boring overpasses or concrete pavement. Much was left out.

For a book whose topic was very much architecture and art, there was way too few images of the subjects. Would have appreciated twice as many.

I do recommend it for if you want to read about concrete in architecture. There was lots of examples from many places around the Earth and a lot of interesting new information. As someone, who has lived in a few Khrushchyovkas, there was still new to learn. Author's approachable style also helped.

Thank you to Bloomsbury Academic and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

[Theediscerning · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Brief-ish round-up of concrete and all that it has been used for – from multi-storey car parks and skate parks to, well, multi-storey skate parks. Here are Brutalist blocks deemed ugly but too important to be ignored, huge edifices that tip past their usability and just sit there for decades, and long-lasting land art sculptures. Concrete might be unsightly for many, but tell that to those who only live today due to wartime bunkers and pillboxes protecting their ancestors. It's where the Mafia have put some of their victims, and it's made thousands more suffer with the construction of mahoosive dams.

Designed for the general audience, it is a specific kind of reader who gets a lot of entertainment from these pages, but they are accessible, and ultimately – with the ridiculous environmental cost of the cement and concrete industries – it is a subject everyone needs to read something about at some point. It might as well be this historical slide show. It made me do online searches for many funky buildings, and fits this series' remit, of books on subjects you'd never expect to see yourself reading about, rather well. Three and a half stars.

[Sharondblk · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about concrete? Yes please. Like all the books in this series, the topic is begun from the authors own experience and knowledge. This volume has limited focus on Stephen Parnell and his relationship with his subject. Enough that the reader understands his focus, but it's not about him it's about concrete. Concrete buildings, concrete structures, abandoned concrete, environmental impacts of concrete. It's surprisingly interesting. I wish there were more pictures to illustrate what is being described, since there were many architectural explanations that could have been supplemented (or replaced by) a photograph.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating little book that made me look at an everyday material in a completely different way. Stephen Parnell explores concrete’s history, uses and contradictions, from Brutalist buildings to surprisingly intimate objects. I enjoyed the way he challenges our assumption that concrete is simply ugly and utilitarian, while also acknowledging its environmental and aesthetic problems. As ever with this series it’s written from the personal view of the author but for me that made it even more engaging. I would have liked more illustrations, though, as you really need to see the buildings and objects he examines, and it’s disrupting to keep having to look elsewhere whilst reading. That said, it’s an interesting and thought-provoking addition to the Object Lessons series.