structural steel
The combination of concrete and steel is the currency of most modern construction, and there's a simple economic explanation for that fact: The affordability and availability of the basic ingredients of cement, aggregate, water and rebar have made their combination viable for use in countries the world over. Used together, especially when the cementitious product comes in the form of pneumatically applied concrete, reinforced concrete is incredibly flexible and can be used to create almost any shape we might imagine. And in the case of pneumatic application, those shapes can largely be created without the use of traditional concrete forms. Indeed, it's a construction matrix that can be used in such a way that the contours of the soil dictate the shape of the structure, giving the watershaper almost unlimited flexibility. It's even fair to say that
Back in November, I described the background of a project on a sprawling estate in the hills near Hanover, Pa. - a spectacular setting for an enormous swimming pool, an island spa, a cascading waterfeature and big expanses of rockwork and stone decking. As was mentioned, our first task was to remove a brand-new system of retaining walls that had been built adjacent to the planned location for the swimming pool. We did so because the wall's large footings reached into a space needed to support a cascade that will appear to tumble into the pool. To ensure
