Self-climbing Formwork

Self-climbing formwork lifts itself up a tower or bridge pylon on its own hydraulics, reusing the same rig for every level instead of being disassembled each time. On the Padre Las Casas bridge in Chile the structure was double-curved, so the standard climbing shoe wouldn’t fit — taking it apart per pour would have killed the project’s viability. I designed two new shoe types so it could keep climbing.

The principle is compounding leverage: build the rig once, let it carry you up every floor. I look for the same shape in software — the system that makes the next iteration cheaper than the last.