Translucent Concrete.

Concrete is the material used in contemporary architecture, and forming part of the structure of many buildings has proved its value in the surface treatment or coating. Despite all these applications is a material which is cold.The translucent concrete story begins just seven years ago, When architect Bill Price created in 1999 the first sample of this material, which tried to find which of the main components it was possible to replace the concrete to reach translucency and maintaining its basic composition. In this manner, the first translucent concrete was made of pieces of glass and transparent plastic.
Litracon is the name of this material invented by Hungarian architect Ron Losonczi. This is a new compound with concrete strength, but complemented with embedded optical fibers through which light passes, allowing the silhouettes on the other side of the wall. The main idea behind this interesting item was the integration of thousands of optical fibers with a diameter that can range from 2 microns to 2 millimeters cell layers or, parallel to the two sides of the block.
A wall made with this material has the strength and resistance to conventional concrete and also thanks to the fibers that have been incorporated, has the possibility of allowing the view from outer space silhouettes. The fibers are integrated into the concrete as added and the surface obtained is reminding the homogeneous concrete. The material is translucent because the fibers carry light in the form of small dots from an illuminated face the opposite block face.

So far only been used experimentally to make a small memorial 4 meters celebrating Hungary's entry in the EU.