Study Architecture 
ProPEL 
Author(s): Kristopher Palagi
Concrete formwork is expensive. Within residential construction, the wood installed, shed and discarded compounded by the exhaustive cost of labor, make casting even a simple straight wall insurmountable. Regardless of the number of sustainable practices thrown at it — engineered, reclaimed, recycled — to attempt a novel form becomes an unjustifiable venture. Moving away from wood, prefabricated formwork can minimize the cost but drags along baggage of its own. Metal panels demand a strict adherence to standardization for efficiency, while foam blocks only allow the structural integrity to blend with heavenly thermal results by completely masking the poetics of a concrete finish. And digital fabrication’s tolerances shine bright but we are lying to ourselves if we believe it will illuminate the other 99% of construction. Principally, this project aims to develop a reusable formwork assembly for casting in place concrete walls with structural capacities. Additionally, the system is challenged to pair limitless formal variations with minimally skilled labor.
https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AMP.105.25
Volume Editors
Luis Francisco Rico-Gutierrez & Martha Thorne
ISBN
978-1-944214-07-4
