What is the textured concrete finish left by wooden formwork called?

The textured concrete finish left by wooden formwork is called board-marked concrete.

When fresh concrete is poured into timber shuttering, the boards hold it in place until it hardens. Once the formwork is removed, the concrete can retain the wood’s grain, joints and repeating plank pattern. This deliberate imprint is the “board-marked” finish, sometimes also described as board-formed or board-shuttered concrete.

The finish is closely associated with béton brut, the French term for raw or unfinished concrete. Béton brut is a broader description: it refers to concrete left exposed with the marks and irregularities of its casting process. Board-marked concrete is therefore one particular form of béton brut, not a perfect synonym in every technical context.

Exposed aggregate is different: it reveals stones by washing or mechanically treating the surface. Polished concrete is mechanically smoothed and refined, while smooth concrete uses formwork designed to minimise visible texture. Le Corbusier’s postwar buildings helped make wood-imprinted concrete influential in Brutalist architecture.