Cardboard as a construction material for temporary architecture: a case study

Abstract

The topic of this article is cardboard as a construction material for temporary architecture: a case study of the Zbigniew Herbert Exhibition Pavilion. The Pavilion was designed and built by a group of 18 students at the course ProtoLAB at the Faculty of Architecture at Wroclaw University of Science and Technology in July 2018. The project focused on constructing Pavilion components out of paper tubes and corrugated cardboard, which have been proven to be a promising building material. Wood-based materials also were used to strengthen the construction. The design of the Pavilion aimed to use the geometry of the components to minimize the amount of metal used to connect elements. The article focuses on the problems of paper’s strength, stability, connections, impregnation, and the way they have been solved during the building process. It also discusses the topic of the possibility of using the unimpregnated cardboard in outdoor constructions. The structure was then evaluated after 5 months of being used and exposed to diverse weather conditions. Damages in the Pavilion elements are mentioned in the paper and the probable reasons why they have appeared are explained. Conclusions from this article may be useful when designing similar objects in the future.