MARS Pavilion

Palm Springs, California

Its capacity to provide homogeneous reinforcement throughout the concrete eliminated the time and labor associated with building 70 unique rebar lattices.

— Joseph SarafianCEO and Co-Founder of Form Found Design
Category

Precast

Category

Innovative

Partner

Form Found

Application

Robotic 3D Concrete

When Amazon asked Form Found to build the thirteen-foot-tall pavilion at the company’s MARS conference, Joseph Sarafian and Ron Culver knew they needed a solution for reinforcing. Since all 70 components are unique and leverage robotics to construct, it would have been impossible to use traditional rebar. After searching the market for applicable reinforcement solutions, Helix Steel Twisted Steel Micro Rebar™ reinforcement technology was a perfect fit for this application.

By incorporating Helix® Micro Rebar™ reinforcement into the robotic creation of the MARS pavilion, we were able to increase compressive, tensile and flexural strength all by more than 25%. Helix® Micro Rebar™ reinforcement allows architects to design structures that are not rectangular and provides a reinforcement solution for technologies such as 3D concrete printing.