Prefabrication experiments - 78 - Moladi injected plastic moulds

Roman builders were the first to use concrete. They filled walls shaped with lateral brickwork with a mixture of incinerated limestone, hydrated volcanic sands and gravel. Concrete's relationship with the history of construction and particularly with the industrialisation of architecture has a rich heritage both technically and aesthetically. From breakthroughs in reinforced concrete in the late 19th century, its malleable properties have been used on and offsite in the production of panels and surfaces for walls, floors and for a plethora of either component or monolithic building strategies.

While adaptable, concrete’s weight, curing time and space requirements have forced builders to regard the building site as an industrial unit. This relationship between production and place have produced a well documented tradition of industrialised formwork conceived to at once simplify assembly and streamline the onsite manufacturing process.  Tunnel forms, slip forms, reusable forms and the iconic Tournalayer sought to industrialize onsite concrete production. Permanent or temporary formwork was and still is fabricated in wood, plastics, steel, or foam insulation. Within the spectrum of reusable formwork, plastics are specifically valued for their agility, lightness and strength. Furthermore, plastic’s precise production processes enables simple and stable connections.

Moladi is a producer of injection moulded lightweight reusable formwork, which carries a simple assembly line process to the building site. The plastic moulds are designed to standard modular sizes, which are delivered and assembled on site. Reinforcing bars are then positioned within the cavity, which is filled with a cement-based mortar. The mortar is allowed to cure twenty-four hours before the forms are removed and reused on an adjacent structure. The plastic forms are moisture and mildew resistant. The forms can be reused multiple times because of the injected plastic’s durability and constancy. The mortar is a mixture of cement, sand and fresh water. The Moladi system eliminates the necessary skilled labour required in building accurate and resistant formwork and replaces it with prefabricated easy to assemble panels. The assembly, mixing and filling does not require any skilled labour and can be taught on site establishing a localized and economical building process. The Moladi plastic forms are promoted for developing countries or crises requiring quick, solid and straightforward building systems.

Extracted from the moladi website http://www.moladi.net