Thinking outside of the box: Experimental structure »Open Source: Cardboard« in Weimar, Germany Corrugated honey panels form the basis of this pavilion. It was designed by the students from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism and Civil Engineering and was implemented by the chair of Design and Structural Systems. Anyone interested may visit the structure on the south campus of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
»Open Source Cardboard« is the first permanent structure created from corrugated cardboard. The capabilities of this sustainable material will be examined with the help of this 3 x 5 meter long, experimental structure. »This lightweight cardboard construction serves as a subject for our research. Through long-term observations, we hope to obtain general knowledge about building with corrugated cardboard. The source material, honeycomb panels, is a recycled product which requires very little energy to produce. This ecological and easily obtainable product possesses significant potential that has not yet been exploited for house construction«, Prof. Rainer Gumpp describes the project approach.
Flat sandwich elements with a core of corrugated paperboard can be transformed by folding to viable, stiff and aesthetic components. The SWAP-boards by the company SWAP Sachsen GmbH that are used to build this architecture are available in different thickness and possess a high static performance for a wide range of applications. Dr.-Ing. Stephan Schütz examined the material behavior of the boards after folding and wrote his dissertation about this topic. For this, an intensive research has been carried out to develop the geometrical basis of folds in this cardboard boards and to design stable building elements with them. In addition to the folded corrugated honeycomb panels, a water-repellent cement-synthetic sealing compound was used on the facade. The sides were closed using a foil facade or by two rotary portals made of wood.
In the next few years, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar plans to create further modules using various materials. The structures will have the same dimensions and be stackable. The goal is to develop a versatile floor plans for living and working on a grid. 14 students from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism as well as from the Faculty of Civil Engineering were involved in the planning and implementation of this first module. This team of students was supervised by Prof. Rainer Gumpp, Dr.-Ing. Stephan Schütz and Dipl.-Ing. Marcel Ebert from the chair of Design and Structural Systems.
The project, which cost less than €5,000, was funded by the Art and Design Projects Funding Programme from the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Further support came from the following partners: SWAP Sachsen GmbH, Saint-Gobain Weber GmbH, and CENO TEC GmbH.
