The Foam, ETH Zürich, 2007
Elective Course

In this project we investigated strategies for designing and fabricating panels with polyurethane foam. The foaming process can only hardly be simulated. This constraint has been seen as an opportunity to push the envelope of the relation between material potential and digital design tools. The evaluation of design properties became only possible through an iterative loop of scripting and production. This involved analyzing the material properties of foam and its behavior during the foaming process in order to understand the resulting material effects and feed this information back into the design decisions.

zoom in - the PU foam accumulates in recessions and inflates to form bumps
2D path
Intersecting lines create a woven structure.





Credits:
Gramazio & Kohler, Architecture and Digital Fabrication, ETH Zurich

Collaborators: Silvan Oesterle (project lead), Ralph Bärtschi, Michael Lyrenmann
Students: Christian Blasimann, Elisa Brusky, Daniel Hässig, Kathrin Hasler, Nils Havelka, Andres Herzog, Kaspar Hofer, Jacob Jansen, Bettina Jochum, Yuta Kanezuka, Simon Kraus, Hannes Oswald, Christoph Rauhut, Michael Reiterer, Sibèlle Urben, Aline Vuilliomenet, Philipp Zimmer, Barbara Zwicky
Industry partner: Cellform AG, PU-Technik Meyer