This full-scale experiment investigates the feasibility of spraying a textile-reinforced thin concrete shell using a lightweight flexible formwork composed of a tensioned cablenet as falsework and tailored fabric as shuttering. This one-to-one prototype (within a bounding box of 20m x 10m x 7m) was undertaken as a dress rehearsal within a largely controlled environment ahead of the ultimate in-situ construction of the NEST HiLo project itself.

The development of the prototype focused on the first layer of NEST HiLo's thin concrete shell and represents a key milestone for the project, as it demonstrates the viability of the proposed lightweight, flexible formwork system to form a complex concrete structure. The prototype was built with the following objectives:

01 — To develop and test the cable net components at real scale.
02 — To test the feasibility of the system and the on-site logistics.
03 — To test the concrete spraying of a large and doubly curved surface through the carbon-fibre reinforcement.

SM practice director Dave Pigram was research lead and managed the design, planning and construction of the roof prototype with documentation support from the Sydney office whilst on secondment to the Block Research Group [ETH Zurich].

PROJECT CREDITS:

CLIENT
ETH ZURICH + EMPA
PROJECT AND RESEARCH LEADS
BLOCK RESEARCH GROUP [BRG]
A/S ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING SYSTEMS
ETH ZURICH
PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS
BOLLINGER+GROHMANN
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
MARTI AG BAUUNTERNEHMUNG
CONCRETE SPRAYING
BÜRGIN CREATIONS
CONCRETE
HOLCIM SCHWEIZ AG
CONCRETE STRUCTURAL TESTING
INSTITUTE OF STRUCTURAL CONCRETE RWTH AACHEN
CABLENET COMPONENTS
JAKOB ROPE SYSTEMS
LEHMANN TRUBB
SCAFFOLDING
DOKA SCHWEIZ AG