Fibreglass Formwork Manufacture

Concrete takes the shape of its formwork. On flat surfaces that is no problem, but as soon as a dome, an arch or muqarnas is involved, timber formwork becomes both expensive and impossible to reuse. Fibreglass formwork fills exactly that gap.

Zahan İnşaat also produces for others the GRP formwork it uses on its own mosque and minaret projects. The process starts with the pattern: a timber or foam master is made first, gelcoat and glass-fibre layers are laid over it, and the cured shell is then supported by a steel frame.

Where is fibreglass formwork the right choice?

What makes GRP formwork economical is repetition. It comes into its own on any job where the same form has to be cast more than once:

• Mosque domes and half-domes (including squinches and pendentives)
• Arches, column capitals and muqarnas rings
• Minaret şerefe shells and cap forms
• Precast facade panels and decorative concrete elements
• Pools, landscaping and free-form architectural elements

Fibreglass, timber or steel?

Each of the three materials has its own territory:

• Timber — one-off work, simple geometry. Cheap to start with, expensive on repetition.
• Steel — flat surfaces under high pressure. Heavy, and not economical for curved forms.
• Fibreglass — curved and decorated surfaces. Light, and the highest surface quality of the three; the initial mould cost falls once divided by the number of reuses.

What the scope covers

• Dome, half-dome and arch formwork
• Muqarnas, rosette and decorative element moulds
• Lightweight, high-strength GRP manufacture
• Made to measure, from pattern to finished mould