Fib[Earth]Slab

The Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector faces urgent challenges related to material waste, energy consumption, and embodied carbon emissions. Among the most impactful structural components, floor slabs significantly influence the environmental footprint of new buildings. Simultaneously, large volumes of excavated earth, typically treated as waste, remain underutilized despite their potential as a low-carbon construction material. This thesis addresses these intersecting challenges by investigating a bioregional design-to-fabrication strategy aimed at repurposing locally available earth into structurally efficient, multi-spanning earthen slabs through the use of Fiber-Reinforced Textile Formworks (FRTF). The research focuses on the mechanical and physical characterization of unstabilized pourable earth as a construction material, develops a computational design methodology to form-find ribbed funicular vaults using stress-informed foldable textile topologies, and studies Tailored Fiber Placement (TFP) as digital manufacturing technique to precisely embed shaping and reinforcement information into the FRTF. Through iterative physical and digital studies, the thesis develops and demonstrates the proposed methods, resulting in a 1:1 scale demonstrator as proof of concept for the bioregional design system. The results confirm the structural viability of the hybrid fiber reinforced earthen slab and underscore its potential to expand the architectural design space using regionally sourced, unstabilized earth. Overall, the research establishes the methodological foundations to expand this system into larger building assemblies, contributing to the development of scalable, low-carbon construction strategies that upcycle excavated soil into high-performance structural components.

ITECH M.Sc. Thesis Project 2025: Fib[Earth] Slab - A bioregional design-to-fabrication system for multi-spanning earthen slabs using fiber-reinforced textile formworks
Jonas Gorges, Likhinya KVS, Nicolas Pousa

Thesis Advisers: Simon Treml, Tzu-Ying Chen, Rebeca Duque Estrada

Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Achim Menges
Second Supervisor: Prof. Jan Knippers