It is often heard that ferro-cement is a poor reinforced concrete and a second-class technology developed for Third World countries. Nothing could be more wrong.

Ferro-cement is a building material with some similarities to reinforced concrete. Indeed, both materials have the same source. Ferro-cement is produced by applying cement mortar composed of fine aggregate and cement onto wire reinforcement using plasterer techniques. As a result the property of ferro-cement distinguishes it from reinforced concrete. While of similar durability, it is more elastic than reinforced concrete.

A Frenchman, Joseph Monier (1823 - 1906), produced flower pots made of cement mortar reinforced with chicken wire and showed this product at the world exhibition held in Paris in 1867. J. Monier became known as the father of reinforced concrete. In Germany for many years reinforcement steel was called "Monier iron". In 1847, another Frenchman, Joseph-Luis Lambot, filed a patent for producing a cement boat, wire-reinforced, not long after the development of Portland cement. Which of the two men first had the idea of combining wire with cement mortar is of no interest. Probably the discovery technique happened by chance. At that time, the commonly known chicken wire was a handmade product and therefore soon too expensive in the fast growing industrial era. But the knowledge of the steel-concrete combination resulted in the development of reinforced concrete using large steel rods. During the First and also later during the Second World War, the technique of Lambot's ferro-cement boat was remembered in the U.S. and the U.K. and shipbuilders were encouraged to construct barges like this in order to save shipbuilding materials such as steel plates and timber. Although some of the boats built during the Second World War had an amazingly long life span, the technique did not really became widespread.

It was the famous Italian engineer and architect, Pier Luigi Nervi, who first undertook real research into ferro-cement technology. He observed that reinforcing concrete with layers of wire mesh resulted in a material with high impact resistance properties. This material differed from reinforced concrete in its flexibility and elasticity. After the Second World War, Nervi built a 165-ton motor sailer. This ship, "Irene", proved to be seaworthy. Similar ships were built in the U.K., New Zealand and Australia, and one circumnavigated the world without problems. But Nervi would not have been a structural engineer and architect if he had not also used this material for building construction. In 1947, he first built a storehouse of ferro-cement. Later he combined reinforced concrete with the ferro-cement technique and constructed the famous Turin Exhibition Hall with a roof system which spans 91 m. Nervi's work proved that ferro-cement is a high quality construction material. The question remains why ferro-cement is relatively seldom used as a building material in industrial countries. The answer lies in the process of industrialization of construction work. In order to minimize the labour cost, construction work has become more and more capital-intensive. As a result, working processes have been mechanized wherever possible. In this context the possibilities for mechanizing ferro-cement remain very limited. A high percentage of labour cost will always characterize this technology. While this is considered to be a disadvantage for industrialized countries, it is a positive factor in developing countries where the labour market is characterized by high unemployment and low labour costs.

It has therefore to be emphasized that ferro-cement is by no means a second-class technology, but rather highly appropriate especially for countries where labour costs are low.