Slabs
Cast-In-Place (CIP) reinforced concrete slabs can be constructed in fabric molds. This is not the easiest application of flexible formworks to build, but numerous model tests and full scale prototype constructions have shown the feasibility of this application, which has several important advantages over rigid, flat, slab formworks. Light-weight fabric formworks use the natural deflections of the flexible mold membrane to form light, ribbed, one-way slabs. Fabric molds can also be used to form integral supporting “beam drops” in a conventionally formed slab, by allowing a fabric form-liner to sag downwards forming deeper support beams. Integral supporting columns may also be formed from the same flat fabric sheets.
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