Permanent Impermanent – The Rise of Cardboard Architecture
A study of feasibility and vulnerability in cardboard as long-term building materials in architecture.
Abstract
Cardboard is a lightweight, recyclable and cheap material. People used to think that cardboard, a paper-based material used mainly for packaging purpose in business and industry sector, was impermanent, short-life and fragile. Today, architects and designers have proved its strength by expanding its lifespan into architecture industry, as construction material for art installations, temporary shelters and buildings. Cardboard becomes a thing again after Japanese architect Shigeru Ban started experimenting it and built the first Paper Log House for the earthquake victims of Kobe in 1995. Ban’s disaster relief projects not only rebuild the homeless lives, but also reintroduce and rise the architecture of cardboard. This dissertation explores the feasibility of cardboard as a long-term construction material in architecture through analysing three different beautiful projects from cardboard: Paper Church Taiwan (2008) by Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, Westborough Primary School (2002) by British architect, Brian Vermeulen and Wikkelhouse (2016) by Netherlands designer, Rene Snel.
Research Topic
Cardboard used to be labelled as short-life structures in architecture which are meant to be demolished after the period of usage like art installation, exhibition panels and emergency shelters . In recent years, successful disaster relief projects of Shigeru Ban by using cardboard have motivated many architects and design teams to research the material in the field.
“What is permanent? What is temporary?
Even a building made of paper can be permanent.
Even a building made in concrete can be very temporary,
if it's destroyed by a disaster, or a developer. “
In the talk of TEDxTokyo on May 2013, Shigeru Ban talked about his experiences in making short-life cardboard into a more permanent building structure. Not only Ban’s projects, the world famous cardboard school, Westborough Primary School and cardboard house, Wikkelhouse have proven the capabilities of the material in the industry and field.
Despite all these projects proven cardboard as potential building material, the popularity in using cardboard as the main structure in architecture field has remained stagnant due to the lack of research on this undeveloped material.
Therefore, the research topic is to focus and study the feasibility and vulnerability in cardboard as building material in order to help architects to explore and have a fuller understanding of the material. By using famous architects’ cardboard projects as case studies, this dissertation highlights both potentials and limitations of the material. For cardboard’s potentials, this paper will look into the durability, strength, creep, flexibility, construction efficiency, cost efficiency, and insulating properties of thermal and acoustic, whereas limitations such as water resistance, fire resistance and jointing will be further investigated.
In addition, this research paper also studies about cardboard architecture and how the architectural styles and building construction processes fit in normal UK architecture like the successful cardboard school, Westborough Primary School which located at Westcliff-on-Sea, UK. Compare with the traditional building materials such as concrete, timber and brick, this paper analyses a variety of construction possibilities of cardboard in the industry.
In short, this dissertation helps widen the knowledge of architects so that the benefits and challenges of using cardboard in architecture can be realized by the industry and society.
Case Study 1: Paper Church Taiwan (2008) by Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban
Figure 1: Exterior of Paper Church Taiwan. Source: http://mapio.net/pic/p-46905605/.
Figure 2: Interior of Paper Church Taiwan. Source: http://mapio.net/pic/p-46905605/.
Case Study 2: Westborough Primary School (2002) by British architect, Brian Vermeulen
Figure 3: Exterior of Westborough Primary School. Source: http://www.west-borough.kent.sch.uk/.
Figure 4: Interior of Westborough Primary School. Source: http://www.west-borough.kent.sch.uk/
Case Study 3: Wikkelhouse (2016) by Netherlands designer, Rene Snel.
Figure 5: Exterior of Wikkelhouse. Source: https://www.wikkelhouse.com/.
Figure 6: Interior of Wikkelhouse. Source: https://www.wikkelhouse.com/.
Literature Review (Current state of knowledge/practice)
Environmental issues due to non-sustainable building materials have become global issue that raises the international attentions on the recyclable and environmentally friendly building materials, especially paper and cardboard. Hence, extensive published research on topic of cardboard can be obtained in architecture field.
Mick Eekhout, Fons Verheijen, and Ronald Visser discuss the definition of cardboard as building material in their book, named Cardboard in Architecture (2008). Mick Eekhout critiqued that cardboard is no longer a material that its function limited in packaging industry. He pointed out the natural qualities of cardboard that strongly influence the development of cardboard as lightweight building materials in the industry. He stated that cardboard has become a mature and valuable building element in the industry of cardboard and architecture despite its poor image in the past few decades.
Building materials by Donald N. Cornejo and Jason L. Haro (2008) is a book about properties, performance and applications of recyclable materials, one of them is cardboard. Donald N. Cornejo wrote the potentials of cardboard that make it as alternative of traditional building materials like timber, concrete and brick. He suggested that traditional building materials should be replaced by developed cardboard as building components such as walls, floors and roof structures. In the book, he enhanced that cardboard, as a short-life material can be a long-term building structure for today’s architecture and construction industry.
On the other hand, I also gained knowledge from Andrew Cripps’s research, Cardboard as Construction Materials (2004). By using the “after-school club”, a cardboard school in UK as case study, Andrew explored the issues involved in the construction process, which is the most interesting part in the research paper. Andrew investigated the overall process although it has not been easy. Lessons in his research report can definitely be learnt to improve the future cardboard construction in architecture field.
Furthermore, Shigeru Ban: paper in architecture by by Riichi Miyake, edited by Ian Luna & Lauren A. Gould (2009) features forty successful projects of Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban. Riichi Miyake showcases the possibilities applications of cardboard into variety of permanent buildings, ranging from disaster emergency shelters to churches and museums. Besides that, it also provides useful information for my case studies, Paper Church Taiwan (2008) by Ban. Riichi included details from design process to construction process by providing clear details drawings and pictures in the book.
In short, there are wide range of sources available and sufficient knowledge for me to answer and complete my dissertation question.
Research Question
This dissertation asks two primary questions.
1. What is cardboard and to what extent can it be used in architecture?
2. How feasible is cardboard as a long-term structure in architecture?
In order to answer the primary questions, the main research questions a generally broken down into numerous sub-questions including:
– What are the cardboard’s properties that make it a usable construction material?
– What are the vulnerabilities in cardboard as a long-term building material?
– To what extent can cardboard be used as building material in architecture in term of structural system, jointing, connections between the other building elements, and connections from the ground to the roof?
– What is the most suitable construction method for cardboard architecture as a permanent building?
– What lesson can be learnt from the successful cardboard projects done by the famous architects?
– Is there any failure cardboard project we can learnt from and what is the failure factors?
– How can architects contribute to the industry and society by using cardboard as building structure in the future?
Research Methods
Analysing the potentials of cardboard as building material in architecture requires a wide range of knowledge in architecture, construction, and production. In order to answer the research questions, several methodologies should be carried out.
My primary method of answering the research questions will be theoretical analysis on literature from university library including books, magazines, articles and news. Literature research regarding architecture history of cardboard projects, general used construction methods in cardboard architecture and properties of cardboard as paper-based material are conducted to answer the primary question of this paper. Online literature and web based documents from reliable sources will be reviewed as well in order to supplement the topic with sufficient information.
Multiple case studies of famous projects will be analysed for answering the research question such as Paper Church Taiwan (2008) by Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, Westborough Primary School (2002) by British architect, Brian Vermeulen and Wikkelhouse (2016) by Netherlands designer, Rene Snel.
Site visits to the construction industry and production factory of cardboard are conducted to have a fuller understanding on processes from cardboard making to cardboard recycling. By investigating the whole process in reality, a better knowledge about feasibility of cardboard gained can be useful to complete this dissertation paper.
Further information related to my intended research questions will be obtained through interviewing those successful architects, like Shigeru Ban, Brian Vermeulen and Rene Snel by sending a well-prepared questionnaire via e-mail.
Gantt chart below shows the assumption of my stages of research report will be completed in the time frame of 1 semester (6 months).
Month
Stages Month
1 Month
2 Month
3 Month
4 Month
5 Month
6
Topic confirmation & discussion
Collection of data from books
Conducting literature review
Creation of research methodology
Selection of research technique
Collection of primary data
Site visit
Data analysis
Drafting
Refinement
Final Submission
Gantt Chart 1: showing stages of research report will be completed in the time frame of 1 semester (6 months)
Conclusion
This paper studies the rise of cardboard in architecture. There are many cardboard projects by famous architect in the past few decades that proved the ability of cardboard as building material. However, the use of cardboard as main building structure like wall, floor, and roof in architecture filed has remained disappointed due to the lack of knowledge and research on the material itself. Therefore, this paper has done researched on the potentials of cardboard and how can it be used as a long-term building material in design and architecture. Research shows that the benefits of using cardboard as a building material are its lightweight which makes transport, assembly and disassembly much more easier, its durability which can resist external force like other traditional materials, its flexibility which can be adjusted according to users’ needs, its minimal environmental impact as it is recyclable and consume less energy compared to other materials like concrete, its insulating properties for interior function such as thermal insulation and acoustic insulation due to its fluting design that catch air between the gaps, and its low cost in the cardboard industry.
However, the application of cardboard as building material is limited by several factors too. These vulnerabilities can affect its function as building structure if they are not solved or treated in a proper way before used. Research shows that cardboard has weak water resistant. The bonds between the fibres of cardboard could be broke and destroyed if it is contact to water directly, for example raining. To stronger the water resistance of cardboard, a thin layer of waterproof coating should be added on the top layer of cardboard during the production stage. The second limitation is poor fire resistance. A property like timber, cardboard is flammable if treatment is not applied properly during the production process. Chemical additives can be used to enhance the protection of cardboard from fire.
Hence, this study proves that it is very feasible to use cardboard as construction material. Like other materials, cardboard fulfils demands from economic, social as well as environmental. It also fulfils the laws and regulations and building code in UK. The unexpected research result also shows that cardboard satisfies designers’ and architects’ demands as it can be utilised for the interior and exterior designs, from furniture, exhibition wall panel, temporary shelters to long-term housing design.
Through the research carried out, I hope to provide an understanding that new lives can be given for both cardboard material and also cardboard buildings so that cardboard is able to continually function as long-term structure while the buildings can last and benefit the community as well as our environment.
“What is clear now is that it can be done.
So what is the next step for cardboard building?”
Famous British architect, Brian Vermeulen left this question for the young architects. According to Brian, there are many possibilities of cardboard to be developed in the future. Therefore, further research should be carried on to explore new design strategies, new constructions and applications of cardboard in this field as architecture in the future is unpredictable.
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