Zero Waste Free-Form Formwork

Concrete is well suited for large scale, load-bearing free-form structures (Figure 1). It has demonstrated its potential in this field in many applications such as for the large span roofs of Pier Luigi Nervi or the shells of Felix Candela that are particularly interesting with respect to formwork. Candela limited his structural designs to shapes derived from hyperbolic paraboloids in order to allow the formwork being fabricated from straight members, thus drastically simplifying the construction process and making it possible to re-use the formwork parts (Tom van Mele & Philippe Block 2010).