The Indispensable Role of Scaffolding and Formwork in Construction

Whether contemplating the homes we live in, a towering office block, or a Gothic cathedral, we are often impressed by what we see. It may be the imagination of the architects who designed them that captures our imagination or perhaps the skill of the artisans who laboured to build them. However, we seldom pause to consider the important role played by scaffolding and formwork, without which most of the man-made structures around us could never have been created.

The latter is a relatively modern innovation that can be traced back to the appearance of moulded concrete structures in Roman times. By contrast, Palaeolithic cave paintings found in France suggest that the practice of employing some form of platform to enable working on tall structures could have begun as long as 17 000 years ago. Later evidence shows wooden platforms to have been used by artists to work on large paintings and sculptures and one can imagine something similar must have been used to create the gigantic carved figures favoured by Egypt’s pharaohs.

Both scaffolding and formwork remain important to the construction industry of today, although their design and the materials from which they are made have had to evolve to cope with the demands of the 21^st century. For example, while timber may still be used on occasions to create moulds, it has largely been replaced by metals such as aluminium and steel, and even plastics. Not surprisingly, metal has also replaced wood for the poles and other components that support the elevated platforms used to work at height.

For convenience, modern scaffolding and formwork are manufactured in modular form, which allows them to be readily assembled in whatever configuration may be required by a given task and dismantled for ease of transportation. While older scaffolds still in use make employ nuts and bolts to secure their various components in position, the use of interlocking components allows scaffolding to now be assembled in far less time. Furthermore, the task can easily be undertaken by an unskilled labourer, thus eliminating the need to pay for expensive, skilled specialists.

Ancient or modern, scaffolding enables work at height and formwork facilitates the use of concrete which, unlike stone and bricks, has no fixed form of its own and must be moulded into the desired shape. It is the mouldable nature of concrete that has made it possible to build structures like the Pantheon and the Sydney Opera House.

Whether attempting to emulate such architectural masterpieces or simply constructing new homes and office blocks, it requires companies such as Disc-O-Scaff to manufacture the quality scaffolding and formwork that make it all possible.