Concrete casting

For a recent module I was asked to cast a piece of concrete. The aim of the module was to get to grips with the versatility of this ancient building material. It is extraordinary the the extent to which this impressive material permeates not just our built environment, but our everyday lives too. From work surfaces, to the piers of bridges, from park benches to WWII bunkers, concrete can exist in almost every conceivable environment. However for this module I wanted to work with the material and transform it so that we may experience is as something more than itself. In the same way, as with my design thesis, I wanted to represent the material as something other than a construction material. With so many of Zumthors works, he tries to seek out the "essence" of the materials- find their true meaning. With his Brother Claus chapel he burned out 112 felled trees from the interior of a concrete structure. This left the burned sap and charred wooden interior, rich with smells and colours- a hugely intense an evocative experience. In this building we find the concrete as something new- in a light we have never seen it before. Is this its essence? I doubt it, but I found it an interesting and novel, elemental way of treating the material- As such I wanted to to cast a piece of bark from a felled tree on my farm in Wales, and burn it out- leaving the beautiful negative of the bark on the interior.