POPPS, POLYPROPYLENE PLASTIC SHELTERS, RE-USABLE PP SHELTERS FOR FAST ASSEMBLY AND DISASSEMBLY

Abstract

Up to now, we have seen plastic in the manufacturing industry for bottling purposes, in buildings or temporary structures incorporated as a cladding element, but not as a structural component. My thesis is an appreciation of plastic as a structural material in architecture and aims to explore plastic sheets in ways which would rethink its application as an envelope and structural system. Plastic however comes in a certain thicknesses which means that a particular strategy should be employed to ensure the structural quality of plastic. The strategy employed was that of curve folding together with the required anchoring and jointing system to create a stabilized temporary shelter. In order to explore the possibilities of curved folding the appropriate material was also selected that of polypropylene (PP) plastic known for its bendable quality. Programmatically, the lightweight quality and durability of plastic has made it a good candidate for temporary shelters in the context of Mauritius which are currently hugely dependent on such temporary shelters in different programmes. However these use “post and beam” structures which are not efficient in terms of assembly and material optimization. Thus curve folded shelters would be ideal for these instances. The whole thesis has also been done in tandem with the studio objective that of digital fabrication. In order to find the appropriate combination of curves and create a self stabilized structure, curve crease patterns were drawn at a two-dimensional level and folded into a usable space based on case studies and trial an error basis. Prototypes were made and applied according to the requirements of the different programme.