Thin Shell Concrete
Construction Matters | Thin Shell Concrete
In the thin-shell concrete chapter of Construction Matters, readers learn the versatility of the material. Thin shell concrete can be used in a variety of designs, from nomadic to monumental. The general form of this technique is an upward parabola or downward catenary. The concrete is poured across the formwork in a way to produce a smooth monolithic surface. This technique, although may look fragile, holds its strength in both compression and tension forces. It is a great structural system to have in larger projects as it covers large distances with less material. The strength comes from its shape, not thickness.
Two notable projects using thin-shell concrete are the Los Manantiales Restaurant in Mexico City and the Meiso No Mori Municipal Funeral Hall in Kakamigahara, Japan. Each has a different curvature to the structure but highlights the versatility, strength, and potential form of this material over large distances.
Los Manantiales Restaurant
The abilities of curved concrete gave Mexico a unique style that was not like “any known vocabulary of built form.” Is the Los Manantiales Restaurant the beginning of a movement to reject colonial architecture and connect back to pre-Columbian heritage? Even the use of earth as formwork is a nod to adobe structures found in the southern unites states down to south America. Would this architectural independence have only been possible with the discovery of a new technique/material?
Meiso No Mori Municipal Funeral Hall
How on earth do you make this exactly how you draw it or how the computer creates it? I cannot comprehend being on a job site (even though they constructed it in parts) and trying to see if my gentle slope is gentle enough. I understand the structural process but the actual building to copy a drawing I do not understand. Do they use the topographic roof plan?
PART II
Would this concrete structure be possible without the skilled carpenters that created the wooden framework? The author says, “the funeral hall is thus a concrete death mask of traditional Japanese woodwork.”
Resource
Windeck, Georg, Lisa Larson-Walker, Sean Gaffney, and Will Shapiro. “Thin Shell Concrete.” Essay. In Construction Matters, 60–105. Brooklyn,, NY: PowerHouse Books, 2016.