The Nest: Fabric Formwork for Vaulted Floor Systems
Date : 2019
Location: Cambridge UK
Assignment Type: Research | Design
Ceilings are the most material-intensive elements in buildings, typically requiring large amounts of steel and concrete. The Nest rethinks this process by utilizing geometry to reduce material use and eliminate steel altogether. The Nest employs a composition of bending active-flexible formwork that only adds material where forces naturally flow. The system begins by bending timber plates and subtracting material to approximate vault geometries, followed by filling voids with flexible formwork to create ribs in the thin concrete shell.
