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The author focuses on fabric formwork. This involves the process of building a simple concrete wall, making two complicated wooden walls, pouring the heavy grey liquid in between, and adding the wooden walls in the skip. Unlike traditional shuttering, fabric formwork uses tensile rather than compressive forces. Tensile structures weigh less and perform better than compressive equivalents, so the material required to resist tonnes of liquid concrete can weigh only kilos.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article “School 'on probation'” about the University of East London School of Architecture in the June 6, 2013 issue.