The sponsoring association of the Federal Technical College for Concrete Workers awarded prizes for the masterpieces of the past year. The 2022 Concrete Block Award for Design goes to Mario Büscher from Gronau. His transparent fireplace convinced the jury not only with the design idea behind it, but also with the perfect craftsmanship. The Förderverein der Bundesfachschule für Betonwerker (FBB) awarded a “commendation” to the coffee table made by Fauzi Musliu – a stackable and thus space-saving piece of concrete furniture inspired by the classic game Tetris.
Four aspiring concrete block masters had registered for the 2022 examination, produced the required masterpiece and presented it for expert review. To the two masterpieces already mentioned at the beginning, the fireplace and the coffee table, were added a beautifully shaped garden table with a semicircular bench and a swinging pool lounger. Once again, they all met the objective of the annual concrete block award, which is to highlight not only the precision of the craftsmanship, but also the design and design diversity of concrete as a material. This year, the expert jury of the Förderverein der Bundesfachschule für Betonwerker (FBB), which is responsible for the award, included: Beate Leinmüller, designer at the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences, who, as always, had intensively advised and supported the participants in finding ideas as well as implementing the design, Dr. Ulrich Lotz and Stefanie Blank from the Baden-Württemberg concrete associations in Ostfildern, Günther Wiedenmayer from the Ferdinand von Steinbeis School in Ulm, concrete block master Richard Scheer from Sankt Goar, Wolfgang Kinzebach from the Rinn company in Heuchelheim, Christian Egenter from Villa Rocca GmbH in Viernheim and Martin Möllmann from Dyckerhoff GmbH in Wiesbaden. In addition to design and craftsmanship aspects, the potential market opportunities, i.e. the “marketability” of the masterpieces submitted, also played an important role in the evaluation.
Award-winning: A particularly “fiery” masterpiece
At the 2022 Concrete Block Design Award ceremony, the jury chose the masterpiece of Mario Büscher from Gronau in North Rhine-Westphalia, who completed his training at his family’s concrete plant. With his masterpiece, he wanted – as can be read in his production report – “something you could interact with, or at least something that would continue to attract the eye for a few years to come.” And indeed, his ethanol-fueled fireplace is something to behold. Be it the rounded shapes of the concrete element or the transparent glass panes that protect against wind and provide a view of the fire. The special challenges in terms of production engineering therefore included above all the perfect curves with which the mold had to be cut out of the concrete block. Also for the curves inside the fireplace “a lot of sensitivity still had to be applied to produce the accuracy of fit and the visual vividness” – says Mario Büscher. Due to the filigree and round components, a self-compacting concrete based on Dyckerhoff Flowstone Weiss was used. The outer walls were made with Grano Diamond and Basalt Black. The inner parts of the hearth additionally received Criscarb as aggregate. Before the components were firmly joined together with the aid of stone glue, all visible surfaces were subjected to an elaborate polishing process. Finally, everything was impregnated again. Both the creative idea and the excellent design as well as the perfect craftsmanship resulted in a successful overall picture and thus also convinced the jury.
Commended: A coffee table inspired by the classic game Tetris
A special prize in the form of a “commendation” was awarded to Fauzi Musliu from Aalen, Swabia, who completed his training as a precast concrete worker at the company. Traub received. According to his own account, he was inspired to create his masterpiece, a couch table, by the classic game Tetris, which was developed in the 1980s and is the most successful video game in history. Just as the goal in Tetris is to pile colored blocks on top of each other without a single gap if possible, his table should allow the boards to be stacked on top of each other in a space-saving manner when closed. “Since we are a large family with three children, and the available space is never enough and we need a new table, I decided to make the table in three parts of different length and height, which are superimposed on each other just like in the game of Tetris” – it describes his plan. The table reaches a length of almost two meters when fully opened. Despite everything, it is really space-saving when closed. To ensure an even surface, he used waterproof plywood sheets as formwork. Dyckerhoff Flowstone Weiss was used as the cement. Since the color combination was based on the existing living room, the aggregate used was Basalt Black in addition to Diamond Flour and White. The jury was convinced both by the clever design idea and the perfect execution with perfectly finished edges and an overall consistently good concrete quality of the quite marketable furniture.
