Manufacturers have been working to create products that enhance the performance of concrete in a number of ways.

Plastic waste is perhaps the most visible drawback, and has created a large and looming problem.

Hycrete Technologies has developed an admixture, extending the life of concrete by waterproofing it and reducing corrosion.

Papercrete has been around since at least the 1920s but is not widely used. Though labor-intensive, it recycles waste material, has excellent insulating properties, and is inexpensive and strong.

Each pillar was designed with a vertical metallic hollow core, clad with modular ceramic elements that serve as devices for passive cooling and ventilation.

American architect Richard Meier asked Italian cement giant Italcementi to produce a cement that would stay clean and white. The company developed a “smog-eating” cement product called TX Active.

When de Buen learned of the pervious paver he realized it was the solution to a longstanding design problem: how to make pavement that drains like soil.

After spending years advising the United Nations and US Agency for International Development, George Nez, 90, decided that he had his fill of rusting, corrugated tin roofs.