Digital Concrete

The Digital Concrete project aimed to develop a new method for digital or semi-digital fabrication of concrete structures. Even though (reinforced) concrete as a construction material can adapt to highly complex geometries, its use is severely limited in terms of shape due to current fabrication methods. Most formworks are either suitable only for rectilinear structures or require made-to-measure manufacturing which is hardly reusable.

The new method involves manufacturing modular formworks that output a shape approximating the original geometry with the use of 3d tessellations. The base of the selected tessellation is a truncated octahedron, also known as a Kelvin cell. The prototype model was developed based on a shell structure programmed in Grasshopper. After testing a number of formwork materials, we decided to use liquid foam.

The project was funded by the Warsaw University of Technology Student Societies Committee.

2018
Software: Rhinoceros3d, Grasshopper, C#.
Hardware: concrete, gypsum, silicone, liquid foam, PLA, 3d printer, cardboard, wax.
Team project. My contribution: ideation, development of the tesselation script, leading a Grasshopper workshop, co-managing the project during material testing, prototyping, and reporting stages, participation in material testing and prototyping, writing the final report.