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Styrofoam Beam

Team member(s): , , and
Modified by on

Case Study

CYCLOPEAN HOUSE


 

Cyclopean House – Construction

Constructed in 2015, this project was designed by Ensemble Studio and resides in Brookline, Massachusetts.

“Cyclopean House is built, using the vigor of the builder, and the ingenuity of the engineer, to start a journey from the place of its manufacture –Madrid- to the place where it can definitely lie -on top of an existing garage, the ugly duckling of the area.” Why foam? This lightweight construction was used to avoid digging new foundations, or overloading the existing garage.”

The structure more specifically uses solid cores made of foam which are 98% air, reinforced by steel profiles and fire-proofed by a thin layer of cement & fibers. Due to extensive planning the prefabricated beams lock together for efficient construction.

Ideation

Beam Building + Test

After extensive analysis we decided to use our given materials to create a beam that uses stitching as its primary force mitigator, and straps/ties to assist with the shear forces.

Imperfections found in the salvaged wooden beam

Wood Cross Section

Analysis + Conclusion

Exploring the impact of reinforced timber in the styrofoam
Exploring the impact of reinforced timber in styrofoam
The max utilization is lower in the case study.
We can use the same beam type for the structure!
Through the use of an Embodied Carbon Calculator specific to construction, we were able to find more data per unit to confirm our analysis

Although the Cyclopean House proves to be a very interesting in theory, if the same concept was applied in commercial use it would most likely NOT be with recycled Polystyrene, creating a much larger carbon footprint than wood or steel.

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Styrofoam Beam is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed in the Master in Advanced Architecture 01 - 2024-2025 by the student(s) , , and during the course MAA01 24/25 Structural Design Essentials Workshop with Manja van de Worp.