Built Work

Casa Dent, Puerto Rico (2001)

Casa Dent, is a 303 m2 (3,300 ft.) private villa on the island of Culebra, Puerto Rico, designed by Fu-Tung Cheng of Cheng Design with Robert Lawson structural engineer. It is a single story concrete structure with a flat-plate roof slab supported by thirteen cast-in-place reinforced concrete columns. The roof slab is sloped in two directions making each column a different height, ranging from 3.8 m (12'-6") to 2.9 m (9'-8"). All thirteen uniquely dimensioned and detailed columns were constructed using a single formwork design: a spandex inner liner and an external polyethylene geotextile “jacket”, each made from rectangular fabric panels forming simple cylindrical tubes. Variations in circumference and capital design were achieved solely by the pressure of the wet concrete and the manner in which this basic cylindrical formwork was “rigged”. The formworks were fabricated in Winnipeg Manitoba, and flown to the island of Culebra as checked luggage in three small duffel bags.

The architectural design and formworks, and on-site construction of these columns was done by Mark West in 2001 on consultation with Cheng Design.

 

Fabric-formed reinforced concrete columns by Mark West at Casa Dent, Culebra, Puerto Rico.
An article describing this project is available on this web site under DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT [LINK HERE]