The condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, served as a reminder of the impact of water corrosion on common building materials. Questions about building design and engineering remain as climate change brings stronger and more frequent storms.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with Robert Courland, a historian and author of “Concrete Planet: The Strange and Fascinating Story of the World’s Most Common Manmade Material.”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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