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I was kidding! I've been looking at GFRC furniture recently.
Interesting to read that about rebar though.
NotThamesWater-
Yes,
if you've ever been round the Mediterranean, especially the eastern end,
and, coastal Turkey, you often see 'unfinished' properties with some thin steel sticking up proud from the existing structure. I've been told that this conferred some advantage on the builder or owner in that the property was not yet finished, and maybe not yet subject to some property tax or other. Certainly in Turkey, the steel used by jobbing Builders until the major earthquake near Istanbul in the early 2000s was smooth, and laughably small gauge.
Maybe only 4/5 mm diameter and only 4 strands in a column.
So no compression effect as the concrete dried/cured, and typically without sufficient 'cover' to protect the steel from rusting, especially in a coastal environment.
In Turkey, that earthquake did force the authorities to start enforcing Building Regulations, and the used of proper ridged rebar.
mespilus
GFRC = glass fibre reinforced concrete?
The ridges in rebar prevent the drying/curing concrete shrinking as much as it would like,
putting the concrete in compression, where it is much stronger than in tension.
I seem to remember reading about concrete being reinforced with materials other than steel in structures where light(er) weight was required, bridge sections.
For a concrete slab rebar and mesh is so cheap it is hard to argue against,
as long as you have adequate cover, the frameworks is sturdy enough,
and the wet/liquid concrete is vibrated enough to avoid voids.