[LESS INFO] 62 VIEWS | ADDED 14:51:02 10/13/09
Pressure Building (Concrete Falls in Love):
Flexible Fabric Molds for Forming Cast Concrete Structure and Architecture
Mark will describe a wide range of simple techniques for forming concrete in inexpensive fabric sheets. For the past 20 years, he has developed a series of unique and efficient fabric formwork methods for constructing reinforced concrete columns, beams, trusses, walls, precast panels, and thin-shell vaults and panels. This work has been developed from a sculptural practice as well as fundamental structural (and construction) logic. This work is focused on extraordinarily beautiful and practical designs given by the natural deflections offered by simple flat sheets of fabric loaded with concrete. Practical applications of this emerging technology include sustainable concrete (through significant reductions in materials consumed in construction), low-capital construction (for example, CAST’s collaborative projects in Africa), and very thin lightweight double curvature shell structures using glass and carbon fiber reinforcement in place of steel.
