Shaping the future

Formwork has played an important role in shaping the built environment the world over, from the rise of Rome to the rebuilding of Sri Lanka. Now Abu Dhabi could be next on the list, as Jamie Stewart finds out.

They always showed good form in Rome when pushing the boundaries of building. Concrete slabs produced by Roman engineers are among the earliest and finest examples of formwork being put to use in the construction process.

The characteristics of concrete as a material define the architectural appearance of many early Roman structures. The ability of concrete to resist high compressive loads, yet its relatively poor tensile strength, meant that early Roman structures often made use of shapes such as vaults, domes and arches.

Temporary scaffolding and formwork was built into the intended shape of the slab, vault, dome or arch and concrete was poured. Once the concrete was cured, the formwork was stripped away, leaving the slab in place. The Pantheon in Rome is considered to be one of the finest structures to make use of early formwork techniques.

However, the limited production capacity of the building material meant that concrete was placed on the back burner until the invention of Portland cement in the early 19th century, and reinforced concrete in the latter half of the 19th century.

Today, technological advances have seen the formwork industry evolve from these origins. Ekkehart Misch is director of GHI Formwork. Despite the construction slowdown, Misch says GHI has been fortunate enough to grab itself a fair slice of construction boom pie.

The group has been active in Dubai since 2003, operating out of its Al Quoz depot. "We have evolved from a third-party component supplier to a full systems provider for some of the largest contractors in the market," Misch says.

Among GHI's most prominent contract wins to date is its involvement in the Emirates Aluminium (Emal) smelter complex for Al Futtaim Carillion in the UAE.  A range of products are being used on the project including TriTec panel formwork, GHI climbing scaffold KG 240 and GHI Multiflex.

"We picked up five different jobs in the same project because the client was happy with everything," says Misch. "It couldn't have been better."

The phrase "it couldn't have been better" is one you would expect to hear much less in the Dubai construction industry of late. Such words will therefore be encouraging to those seeking to enter into the market.

Gulf Form operations manager Mike Monaghan is one such player. Gulf Form is about to launch a new product - urban form - into the UAE market. The firm is six months into the set up of a new factory in Dubai Investment Park, which Monaghan says will be operational by mid-January.

So what exactly is urban form? "The system was developed to use manual labour to manufacture panels in the factory and to reduce the cost of machinery onsite," says Monaghan.

"It was developed due to a need for low cost housing and for use in developing countries where there was lots of man power but little infrastructure."

Urban form has already been introduced to Australia, the Philippines, and parts of Africa. Interestingly, it was also used during reconstruction efforts in Sri Lanka in the wake of the Asian Tsunami of 2004.

"They got kids off the side of the road to help put the panels together and install it," says Monaghan."That's what it was originally designed for."

So how has reception for the product been in the UAE? Monaghan says Gulf Form intends to move into the labour camp market, where there is a distinct and ongoing need for low cost construction.

"We will also look at villas and low cost housing," Monagahan adds. "Looking at the economic circumstances now we think it will be very advantageous to get in on low cost housing here in the UAE. We know there's a need for it."

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