Concrete? That characterless stuff of parking lots or Communist tower blocks, right? Well, yes. And no. Concrete is actually a name applied to a remarkably wide range of building substances, and, when properly handled, is one of the noble materials of contemporary architecture. A kind of "liquid stone" at the outset, it is malleable, durable, and capable of prodigious feats of engineering. This collection highlights the best work done in concrete of recent years . It includes such stars as Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron, and Steven Holl , but also surprising new architects like the Russians SPEECH and artists such as James Turrell , who turned the famous concrete spiral of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim in New York into the setting of one of his most remarkable pieces.