KNIT CONCRETE FORMWORK
ABHIPSA PAL
1
, WI LEEN CHAN
2
, YING YI TAN
3
,
PEI ZHI CHIA
4
and KENNETH JOSEPH TRACY
5
1,2,3,4,5
Singapore University of Technology and Design
1,2
{abhipsapal.96|chanwileen}@gmail.com
3
yingyi_tan@mymail.sutd.edu.sg
4,5
{peizhi_chia|
kenneth_tracy}@sutd.edu.sg
Abstract. The manufacture of concrete funicular shells often relies
on traditional formwork construction techniques to provide a sculptured
cavity for the fluid material to occupy (Bechthold, 2004). While this
enables a predictable geometric outcome, the extensive use of timber
and/or steel to construct these formworks account for up to 60% of
the total production cost of concrete and are discarded after the casting
is complete (Lloret et al. 2014). Thus, we propose an alternative
method to create prefabricated modular systems out of concrete casted
in customised tubular knitted membranes. These perform as a network
of struts that can be affixed onto 3D printed nodes of a singular
design. Altogether, these components serve as a kit-of-parts that can
be transported to site and assembled together to create shell geometries.
Keywords. Knitted Textile; Fabric Formwork; Concrete Casting.
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper demonstrates the design and fabrication of a modular system composed
of prefabricated concrete struts that are cast within knitted tubular formwork and
assembled together with 3D printed joints. In this scenario, we seek to capitalise
upon the customisability of additive manufacturing methods (i.e. machine knitting
and 3D printing) to create a kit-of-parts for the formation of shell-like frame
geometries.
RE: Anthropocene, Proceedings of the 25
th
International Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided
Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA) 2020, Volume 1, 213-222. © 2020 and published by the
Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), Hong Kong.