History of fabric formwork
In the 1970’s the Spanish architect Miguel Fisac used thin plastic sheets as formwork for textured wall panels.
While several 19th and early 20th Century patents exist for fabric formwork, the first practical applications occur in the mid-Nineteen Sixties with the introduction of fabric formwork for erosion control and pond liners. The work of B. A. Lamberton, E. W. Bindhoff, and others in the field of geotextiles led to the first commercial use of fabric formworks.
In the 1970’s the Spanish architect Miguel Fisac used thin plastic sheets as formwork for textured wall panels.
In the late Nineteen-Eighties and early Nineteen-Nineties, three men working independently and unaware of each other, invented a variety of techniques for forming above ground structures in fabric forming. This work represents the first broad flowering of this technology for above-ground structures.
Kenzo Unno, an architect in Tokyo Japan, invented a fabric formwork system for in-situ cast concrete walls.
Rick Fearn, a builder and businessman in Canada, invented a number of fabric formwork techniques, leading to the development of a series of foundation footing products now manufactured and sold by Fab-Form Industries in Surrey BC.
Mark West, an artist, architectural educator, and builder invented a series of techniques for constructing fabric-formed walls, beams, columns, slabs, and panels. He is now the director of the Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (CAST) at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Architecture, in Winnipeg MB, Canada. CAST is the first research centre dedicated to fabric formwork technology and education.