Paper in architecture: Research by design, engineering and prototyping

Paper is a fascinating material that we encounter every day in different variants: tissues, paper towels, packaging material, wall paper or even fillers of doors. Despite radical changes in production technology, the material, which has been known to mankind for almost two thousand years, still has a natural composition, being made up of fibres...

Intensified Protein Structuring for more sustainable foods: Development of the up-scaled Couette Cell for the production of meat replacers

To meet the increasing need for protein-rich food of an ever growing population, plant-based proteins are being utilized in meat products as replacements for animal-based proteins. Legumes such as soy can serve as an alternative protein source, by featuring both high protein content (36%) and protein functionality (gelation). Nowadays various...

Double-curved precast concrete elements: Research into technical viability of the flexible mould method

The production of precast, concrete elements with complex, double-curved geometry is expensive due to the high costcosts of the necessary moulds and the limited possibilities for mould reuse. Currently, CNC-milled foam moulds are the solution applied mostly in projects, offering good aesthetic performance, but also resulting in waste of material...

Typical Plan: The Architecture of Labor and the Space of Production

In a short essay dealing with the repetitive homogeneity of the Manhattan’s office layouts, Rem Koolhaas defined the term Typical Plan as one of the purest American architectural archetypes. A plan stripped of all its qualities and reduced to a calculated relation between discreet standardised elements: an empty surface able to host whatever...