Team Holee Cheng! - revised direction

So we've met and narrowed our focus to a specific line of inquiry. We're going to explore the possibilities of folded concrete using folded/origami formwork. The intention is to generate thin, lightweight yet strong concrete forms. Our plan is as follows:

1. Explore geometries and develop formwork, both manually and using Grasshopper's Kangaroo plugin to simulate folding/unfolding and the effects of mass/gravity
2. Develop a reusable mold to produce units that can aggregate 
3. Develop self-supporting units, aggregating in both 2D (wall/screen) and — pie in the sky — 3D (a vault).

Some sources of inspiration/information:

Catalan Thin-shell vaulting with brick:

http://www.umanitoba.ca/cast_building/research/masonry/catalan_vaults.html

Folding geometries in Kangaroo/Grasshopper:

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/video/more-rigid-folding-in-kangaroo

More folding geometries:

http://fastconcrete.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/inspiration/

Folded aggregating origami forms:

http://www.origami-resource-center.com/3D-origami-swan.html

A preliminary experiment using aluminum sheets, a promising formwork that should leave a very smooth finish: