Pablo Rica: Compact - Fabric Forming

Compact.

Fabric Forming Component Pablo Rica

Compact is a research project about examining the potential of fabric as a construction technique and developing a modular system, in which material properties and environmental aspects are involved.

This work was done as part of a Master Degree Thesis in the Institute for Advanced Architecture Catalonia in Barcelona Spain.

Compact - Fabric Forming Component

Š 2009 Pablo Rica

Solid Fabric Fabric is a flexible and adaptable material with a soft appearance. In combination with a fill in material, the properties change from supple to hard, gaining structural and thermal qualities. The hardened material turns to have a soft appearance in reverse. This is where the ambiguity and discrepancy from solid fabric to elastic stone becomes interesting. And in that process of changing condition is where new possibilities of design arise.

> Detail of Hamam project ‘Muscular Synergy’ by Josiah Barnes and Pablo Rica

> Physical tests by Pablo Rica. Mould in wood 20x20cm, Lycra fabric and Nylon strings. Filled with clay and sand mixture, sundried

Compact - Fabric Forming Component

© 2009 Pablo Rica

Construction System Using fabric as a construction system has the advantage of its lightness to be transported, unrolled and filled on site. The assembly of the CNC pre-sewed sacks is a process that can be easy and quickly executed by non- or semi-professional workers. This low-cost fabrication method uses materials facile to find and obtain. The reduction of embodied energy, a no-waste production and the possibility that the structure can be decomposed in the future makes this technique a sustainable construction.

“The Strength of a material is unrelated. A concrete building can be destroyed by an earthquake, while a paper building can withstand one… Defining a building as permanent or temporary depends not on the material, but whether the people love it or not. If they love it the building will be permanent.”

Shigeru Ban

> Physical tests by Pablo Rica. Mould in wood 20x20cm, Lycra fabric and Nylon strings. Filled with plaster

Compact - Fabric Forming Component

© 2009 Pablo Rica

Process The sacks can be filled with sand or another material like soil, clay or grass for insulation. Filled with an additional binder like cement, plaster or the use of bacteria, the structure can be hydrated to get a final solidification. Developing a cloth brick system involves many parameters, like gravity, unpredictability, high complexity, and should not only respond to technical requirements, but also address the virtue of beauty.

1. Fabrication

2. Transport

Fabric Sack

Light Sacks

3. Unroll

4. Fill in

[

Optional 5. Hydrate

5. Wait

]

Filling Material

> Physical tests by Pablo Rica. Mould sack 20x20cm in Lycra fabric and Nylon strings. Filled with plaster

Compact - Fabric Forming Component

Š 2009 Pablo Rica

Component The question of mass customization versus repetition becomes important when you focus on the digital fabrication of a specific material like fabric. How much can be digitally produced or digitally designed? Which benefits have a customized unit, each element different, against a singular component with few exceptions? The scale of a component is in relation with the adaptability on the site; small units are more adaptable than a large scale element.

“After studying different models I decided to work with a single middle size component instead of a Greg Lynn, Blobwall

large element like a wall. With the large element you loose the flexibility in the system. On the other hand, a system based on small components, like a hand size brick, need more time for the erection of a wall. So I focused on a large brick-like component.”

> Dispite the impression of one single element, each Polyethylen fabricated unit was CNC cutted with and individual cut. www.glform.com www.e-panelite.com

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> Only a few exception tiles are needed, to achieve an appearance of a singular tile. www.bouroullec.com > Wall pattern study

Compact - Fabric Forming Component

© 2009 Pablo Rica

Physical Models Physical Model I - mattress with line stitches fabric sack, 20cm x 12cm, conical filled with dry plaster, 0.5mm wire, hardened with water

Physical Model II - mattress with quilt-points fabric sack, 18cm x 12cm, rectangular filled with dry plaster, 0.5mm wire, not hardened

Physical Model III - membrane with ribs fabric sack, 49cm x 67cm, with sewed ribs, 2-4cm diameter, filled with dry plaster, hardened with water

Physical Model IV - Ribs fabric, 12cm x 15cm, with sewed ribs, 1.5-2.5cm diameter, filled with dry plaster, hardened with water

Physical Model V - Pants Bricks fabric, 25cm x 15cm x 20cm filled with dry plaster and sand, hardened with water

Compact - Fabric Forming Component

Š 2009 Pablo Rica

Brick Modelling and Fabrication

> Digital Modelling

> Fabric Brick filled with sand and earth

> Fabric Brick filled with dry sand

Compact - Fabric Forming Component

Š 2009 Pablo Rica

Vertical Garden A new added layer on the fabric brings the possibility to improve quality and insulation properties of the structure. The Brick filled with substrate becomes a vertical vegetation wall, used as a planting garden, an acoustic fence or as a retaining wall along a highway street.

> Grass Brick study: Variation in colour and planting vegetation.

Compact - Fabric Forming Component

Š 2009 Pablo Rica

> Exhibition at the Institute for Advanced Architecture Catalonia in Barcelona Spain. July 2009.

Pablo Rica Graduated as architect from the University for Applied Sciences in Bern Switzerland with honors, he holds a professional Master Degree in Advanced Architecture, Digital Fabrication and Self-Sufficient Buildings from the Institute for Advanced Architecture Catalonia in Barcelona Spain.

He has worked as architect and project manager with different architecture offices like UNStudio van Berkel & Bos and VMX Architects in Amsterdam, and Stump Schibli Architekten in Basel Switzerland.

Two of his independent projects were runner ups for Europan competition 7 and 8. Recently, in collaboration with Josiah Barnes, the project called ‘Muscular Synergy’ was selected as second prize in the Designing Fabrication Competition of Architectural Association AA|Fab in London.

Master in Advanced Architecture 2008-2009 Thesis Tutors Belinda Tato & Jose Luis Vallejo [Ecosistema Urbano, Madrid]

Compact - Fabric Forming Component

© 2009 Pablo Rica