Textile Formwork

The aim of the project was to create a lightweight furniture piece using textile formwork for controlled deposition of lightweight expandable foam. Traditionally, the moulds for custom pieces are used only once and then thrown away to be replaced with new ones. To reduce the cost of the mould as well as the amount of waste, a standard off-the-shelf textile pieces for the formwork were integrated in the final product.

First, expandable foam was injected into closed textile form which after that was stretched in a wooden frame. Every next element in the frame was interwoven with the ones already installed. The choice of textile was based on its weave density. It had to allow foam to delicately leak outside the formwork, in a controlled way, in order to create extra connection with its neighbouring components. Once curing process is over, textile formwork remains in place and functions as an upholstery.

Students:Denitsa Koleva, Mona Mühlich, Rob Faulkner, Samantha Melnyk
Tutor: Piotr Baszyński, Jan Petrš
Suprevisor: Jun.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Arch. Hanaa Dahy
Design Studio: Material and Structure, WS 18/19, University of Stuttgart.