Digital building technology: composite paper shells

Described in this study are the design processes and findings of a study on hyperbolic shells made from paper based composites. Cellulose pulps have been taken as the foundation material and reinforced with other fibrous materials to increase their composite strength. Implicit in the design solution was to make innovative use of recycled, found or inexpensive materials. Our line of inquiry involves casting paper into computer numeric controlled machined molds to produce doubly curved panels. The intent is to construct prefabricated shells from light weight modular components. The design is intended as an alternative construction solution to temporal buildings. Areas of application include emergency shelter design as the resultant shell can be mass produced at low cost, economically shipped and easily assembled on site.