Low-Cost and Low-Impact Cardboard Formwork

This work explores alternatives to single-use formwork for concrete-based construction and forming alternatives for housing in low-resource development contexts. Fully or partially prefabricated structures that employ reinforced concrete to make building elements typically depend on expensive formwork made of wood, plywood, or aluminum – materials that often end up in landfills after one use. These strategies are affordable for large-scale initiatives and routine construction in developed economies. There are, however, fewer forming options for professionals and self-builders working in low-resource environments.

This research seeks to take advantage of the abundance of waste cardboard — and the material properties inherent in it — to design, fabricate, and test low-cost/low-impact formwork to support housing construction with elements made of concrete.

The work combines low-tech and low-skilled methods with high-tech and computational design methods and tools. The aim of the research is to design and prototype formwork produced with waste cardboard and sheet vinyl retrieved from the waste stream.