Maybe not everyone knows – unlike in Foldcast – that construction as a whole is the industrial sector responsible for the largest share of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and that among the various processes the most polluting one is the preparation of concrete and cement. And it is precisely starting from this consideration that Fabio Amicarelli, a doctoral student at the USI Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, together with the teacher Ena Lloret-Fritschi, focused his attention on an element which in the building construction process turns out to be particularly "cumbersome" and not easy to dispose of and recycle.

«The formworks – explains Fabio – also called “formworks” or “molds”, are those temporary structures used to contain the fresh concrete until it has hardened enough to maintain the desired shape. Their function is fundamental for the construction of structural elements, mostly in concrete, such as walls, columns, beams, pillars and other architectural components. They are usually made of wood, metal or plastic, but, as is easy to understand, they are in all cases rigid materials, not easy to shape according to specific design needs. The solution we propose instead involves the use of paper and cardboard, a completely recyclable material that allows us to produce formwork at a significantly lower cost. Until now there were cardboard formworks used only for cylindrical columns. The strength of our solution instead arises from the availability of digital technology and software, of which we are exclusive owners, which allows us to design and then create much more complex shapes, also useful for insoles and other complex structures, with the great advantage of concrete savings that can reach up to 50%".

The interest obviously concerns the fact that a light material such as cardboard can be able to support an important weight such as that of concrete and Fabio Amicarelli immediately explains to us that «the value of innovation derives first and foremost from digital design and the availability of machines to obtain a cut of absolute precision. When it works under compression, the cardboard can reach a very high resistance, but this obviously requires specially carried out calculations which allow the concrete to be modeled from time to time, almost creating a tailor-made "skin".

The history of this startup is emblematic of a journey that began in 2022 in the academic field and then continued with the support of USI Startup Center which supports entrepreneurs in the initial stages of realizing their ideas. The Agire Foundation and the victorious participation in Boldbrain 2023 therefore represented the key to access the community of entrepreneurs, business coaches, and investors, creating the network of relationships essential to take the first steps towards the development of a real project entrepreneurial. The success at Boldbrain has guaranteed, among other things, in addition to cash prizes for a total amount of 50.000 francs, a scholarship for the Executive Master in Business Administration of the Università della Svizzera italiana and vouchers for consultancy by partners which will be able to significantly support the development of the project.

Fabio Amicarelli tells us again that after graduating from the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture, he worked for some time in architectural firms in Zurich and chose to carry out his doctorate dealing with the treatment of building materials precisely on the basis of his previous experience on construction sites: «Our team, which includes in addition to prof. Ena Lloret-Fritschi, also Andrea Realini and Elia Quadranti, will soon establish the company, Feldcast precisely, through which we will carry forward our project. So far we have created scale prototypes to verify and resolve all the problems connected to the solution we studied and proposed. We are now in the phase of developing a sample structure to be tested directly on the construction site. The contribution of Andrea Realini proved to be very important in this phase, due to his knowledge of the world of construction in Ticino and beyond. There are companies that have welcomed our solution with interest and with them we are studying the most suitable ways to carry out the experimentation."

To a final question regarding the development prospects of the solution created by  , Fabio Amicarelli has no doubts and responds without hesitation: «We want to create professional software that can enable all companies in the sector that request it to independently develop a product with the characteristics and shapes that best suit to their construction needs, thus allowing significant economic savings and at the same time promoting the reduction of harmful emissions for greater environmental protection".