Architects hoping to play with large, free-form concrete structures often get sent back, literally, to the drawing board because the complex timber formwork required is so expensive. But now a new, “inflatable concrete” system developed in Austria could restore some of that freedom by removing the need for formwork altogether.
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Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology (VUT) this month announced the successful demonstration of a system that uses air cushions to push and bend newly-poured concrete slabs up into predetermined shapes.
The plane concrete plate is produced (VUT)
Called the “pneumatic wedge method”, the technique is fast and relatively cheap because it requires no formwork. An experimental structure has now been built using it.
First a flat slab consisting of several segments is poured with standard concrete. Spaces are left between these segments so they fit together when the structure is bent. It is crucial to get the geometric shape exactly right…
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