The Concrete Canvas Interview

"May I suggest that just cutting and pasting this interview into your paper does not add anything to your students’ work. If they prepare a feature article about the topic and illustrate their comments with quotes, it would be a much fuller writing experience."
- Brian Robinson

Question and Answer Interview with Peter Brewin:

Name of inventors
Peter Brewin and Will Crawford

Age
Both 28

Which school did you go to?
Newcastle-Under-Lyme (Peter)

What was your favourite lesson and why?
Physics as it enabled me to understand the way the physical world behaves and stimulated a lot of ideas.

What subject did you take at University?
Engineering

Is this your first invention and what inspired you?
No, one of many. We were inspired by a design competition to find new uses for cement, and this led us to look at nature and an egg shell as an example of a superb compressive form.

How long did it take from the first tests to have a usable product?
3 years to a useable prototype and 4 years to the first volume manufacturable product.

The “Buildings” made from Concrete/Canvas: Does the ground underneath have to be prepared in any way?
It needs to be reasonably flat.

Can they be “erected” in rainy weather?
No problem actually it just makes spraying easier.

How are the tents moved to where they are needed?
Most transportation will be by shipping because of the weight; 6 of the largest (54sqm of floorspace) variants will fit in a 20 foot ISO container.

Once erected how long will they last?
The design life is 10 years but essentially they are a concrete building and so potentially they could last much longer

Are they in use anywhere in the world at the moment? Are they in any disaster zones?
We are currently in the process of arranging a trial with an Non Governmental Organisation in Afghanistan, the Concrete Cloth is already undergoing field trials there.

When their use is over how are they removed?
They can be demolished using hand tools and the resulting rubble can be used for aggregate or fill. The shelters are extremely efficient and do not require foundations hence there is a lot less rubble than a conventional hard skinned structure.

What is the strangest use that any one has suggested to you?
Using them upside down as boats. This one crops up surprisingly often!

Is there anywhere else you could suggest that schools look?

Section 2.6 on www.concretecanvas.co.uk

www.designboom.com/contemporary/concretecanvas.html

www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,66872,00.html

There are quite a lot of press articles, a lot can be found with a Google, some recent ones are in Materials World and there should be a follow up in the Architects Journal in the next couple of weeks.

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