Kim Förster: Evidencing Cement: Developing Historical, Cultural and Environmental Perspectives

This lecture addresses the historical, cultural, and ecological dimensions of cement as a vital yet problematic building material. It provides a comprehensive examination of the product and industry, including the kiln and quarry operations. The discussion emphasizes cultural representations of cement, alongside a detailed analysis of its environmental impact, particularly concerning land use, waste management, and pollution affecting communities.

Kim Förster is Senior Lecturer in Architectural Studies at the University of Manchester and member of the Manchester Architecture Research Group (MARG). His research and teaching focusses on knowledge and cultural production, as well as institutional and environmental history, with particular attention to issues of building transition in terms of the social metabolism, practices and policies of energy and material flows, and ways that they are debated and mediated. He is author of Building Institution (transcript, 2024) and Undiciplined Knowing: Writing Architectural History through the Environment (CCA, 2023), and editor of the open access series “Environmental Histories of Architecture” (CCA, 2022). His current research project investigates the history of global cement as a modern industrial building material and cheap commodity, offering a corporate critique from perspectives involving cultural studies and environmental humanities.