Michalis Vrachimis of GRCY introduced glass reinforced concrete, a lightweight, glass-fibre composite that, he argued, gives designers the strength of concrete without its bulk, and the freedom to build curves, texture and identity into a façade.
Vrachimis started with the basics. GRC, or GFRC, is a cement-based composite reinforced with glass fibres: cement, sand, alkali-resistant glass fibres, aggregates, water and admixtures. The combination is the point. The concrete matrix provides strength and rigidity; the glass fibre provides flexibility and crack resistance.
What sets it apart is what it leaves out. Unlike conventional reinforced concrete, GRC doesn’t depend on heavy steel reinforcement, so elements can be made thin, light and geometrically complex. In his phrase, it offers “the strength of concrete without its limitations.”
In façade work that translates into cladding panels, decorative elements, curved surfaces, cornices and screens. And the reason it matters now, he argued, is aesthetic freedom: designers are no longer satisfied with flat, repetitive façades, they want curves, texture, depth and identity, and GRC is a powerful tool for exactly that.
The rest of the case was about behaviour in a place like Cyprus: manufactured by spraying the composite into moulds, and engineered for hot maritime climates, durability, corrosion resistance and the management of thermal movement over the long life of the façade.