Introduction

With the emerging modernization of technology as well as the infrastructures,

engineers, architects and researchers have been studying to achieve a great

architectural corresponding feasible structural design in a relatively cost economic and

practical manner. An infrastructure that only has not a safe structural design but at the

same time has an effortless aesthetic architecture. The means of having a low

maintenance, not expensive and flexible material by construction technique, which is

innovates, without risking its quality and aesthetic form.

Formwork or Shuttering by the name means “The Mold” which means it is the

casting into which the casting material, usually concrete is poured to obtain the desired

structural shape (Comparative Study Between Different Types of Formwork by Rabi

Das, Inranil Bhattacharya and Raja Saha). It moulds the concrete in to different sizes,

shapes and types of formworks based on the structural members such as beam,

column, wall, and foundation to minimize the number of labor hours. Casting of concrete

is a process in construction operation that helps the reduction of materials. In the

construction, formwork is usually made of different materials such are timber, plywood,

plastic, steel, aluminum and even fabric.

The evolution of formworks from conventional type made from timber until the

steel shuttering that can be reuse in several times, strong and durable. Its main

purposed as it was innovate by time is to have an economically, flexibility, high quality

surface finish, availability and durability of materials. The materials of formworks help to

reduce the weight of formwork system during the construction of buildings. The common
materials used are steel and timber but one of the emerging technologies in shuttering

industry for construction is the fabric formwork.

The first appearance of fabric formwork can be attributed to Gustav Lilienthal

(1849-1933), he built a house in Berlin for his family, and the house composed of

parabolic shapes. It calculated a 20% saving in concrete due to the parabolic shape

following the bending moments of the span. Although Lilienthal had commented on the

resulting texture of the concrete, the first person to truly acknowledge the architectural

and aesthetic possibilities of fabric formwork was the Spanish architect Miguel Fisac.

Fabric formwork is a building technology that involves the use of structural membrane

as the main facing material for concrete moulds, that is highly flexible and can deflect

under the pressure of fresh concrete ( History and overview of fabric formwork: using

fabrics for concrete casting by Diederik Veenendaal and Mark West). The flexibility of

the material is feasible to make the concrete mould to any geometric shape. Fabric is a

permeable material produces higher strength and workability concrete as a result of

filtering action that allows air bubbles and excess mix water to bleed through the

formwork membrane (The Fabric Formwork Book by Mark West).

The introduction of woven synthetic fabrics, in market called as geotextile made a

sudden change in history of fabric formworks because of being inexpensive and strong.

It has a high tear propagation resistance, that even how large the volume of fresh

concrete you pour the material will not tear apart. After pouring and hardening of

concrete, when separating the precast concrete from the formwork it will be an easy

process because the concrete does not adhere to the geotextiles formwork. Thus being
non-adherent materials fabrics as formwork will make a high quality of finish surface of

concrete.

Fabric formwork was already used several years ago thus the researcher

innovate a study to introduced again this old type of casting a concrete in a convenient

and efficient way. The researcher design a convertible prototype model of formwork

made of fabric to have a practical and easy way to use a formwork. This is study to help

reduction of material during the construction. The flexibility of the fabric material helps in

terms of various shape of structural design and creates effortless aesthetic architectural.

It is an inexpensive alternative way of shuttering of concrete without risking the

workability and quality of concrete.