A team formed of Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), ETH Zurich and Architecture Extrapolated has designed a "knitted" concrete pavilion for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City.
The KnitCandela is named after Spanish-Mexican architect and engineer Félix Candela and is inspired by the traditional flowing dresses worn in Jalisco State.
KnitCandela is comprised of a five-tonne concrete shell and a 55kg, 3D-printed interior that was packed into two suitcases and carried on a plane to Mexico from Switzerland.
![](https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/846zha2_11.jpg)
Image courtesy of Juan Pablo Allegre
Some 350km of yarn were used to create the knitted formwork, which was printed over 36 hours.
The pavilion’s double-curved concrete shell has a 50 sq m area and was created by a two-step process. Firstly, a cement mixture was sprayed onto a temporary boundary frame, creating a coat a few millimetres thick, after which traditional fibre-reinforced concrete was added.
![](https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/846zha3_9.jpg)
Image courtesy of Philippe Block
Mariana Popescu, an ETH Zurich doctoral student, said: "Knitting offers a key advantage that we no longer need to create 3D shapes by assembling various parts.
"With the right knitting pattern, we can produce a flexible formwork for any and all kinds of shell structures, pockets and channels just by pressing a button."
Top image courtesy of Philippe Block