On 26 November 2012, five projects introduced a discussion on the state of the art of a century-long unchanged material use, aiming to change the way we think about the most used building material on the globe today.

The symposium focused on the questions:

• Can we think of new application and production methodologies for concrete?
• Can concrete heal itself?
• Can it produce power?
• Can concrete be computated?
• Are there organic reinforcement possibilities?

Speakers were Francois Roche of New Territories (France and Thailand), Matthias Kohler of Gramazzio & Kohler (Switzerland), Hendrik Jonkers of TU Delft (The Netherlands), Thorsten Klooster of Task Architects (Germany) and Dirk Hebel, ETHZ/FCL (Switzerland and Singapore). The event was moderated by Stephen Cairns, Scientific Coordinator of Future Cities Laboratory, Singapore.

This symposium was organised by the Chair of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel at ETH Zurich/FCL Singapore together with TEC21 and espazium Switzerland as media partners.