BENCH Headquarters | Taguig City, Philippines

Architectural Concrete Formwork at BENCH Headquarters: When the Concrete Is the Finish

Taguig City, Philippines

Setting a New Standard for Exposed Architectural Concrete in the Philippines

Foster + Partners designed the tower so that large portions of the structure read as exposed architectural concrete, where the as-cast surface is the final finish. The concrete is the architecture, with no second chance to fix it. No plaster. No cladding. Every form joint, tie pattern, and pour line becomes a permanent design element. Bare-finish concrete at this scale is still new to the Philippine market, which makes the project a reference point for the region’s construction community and a working demonstration of what disciplined formwork practice makes possible. The building itself rises 23 stories above six basement levels that reach 20 meters (66 feet) below grade, in the heart of Taguig City’s Bonifacio Global City business district.

Choosing a Formwork System When the Concrete Is the Finish

You choose for two things at once: pressure capacity and surface precision. Monolith Construction & Development Corporation, the project’s concrete contractor, has worked with EFCO Philippines for years, but familiarity alone did not drive the decision. The building required an engineered, panelized system that could resist the full pressure of fresh concrete on one-sided retaining walls while holding the alignment and surface precision an exposed finish demands. Most concrete formwork systems answer one of those requirements well. This project needed both from the same equipment, on the same pour. Monolith selected the EFCO E-BEAM & SUPER STUD® wall-forming system for the perimeter and core walls, with the E-Z DECK® shoring system and Z-BEAM® table forms carrying the basement decks. EFCO’s record on demanding projects worldwide gave the contractor and the design team confidence that the equipment would hold, and that confidence was about to be tested deep below grade.

Finished concrete wall showcasing the architectural concrete finish, Taguig City, Philippines

How Do You Form a One-Sided Retaining Wall Without Ties?

You make the formwork itself the structure. Conventional wall formwork balances concrete pressure between two opposing faces connected by ties. At BENCH Headquarters, that approach was off the table: the basement perimeter walls are one-sided, tie-less retaining walls, an application still uncommon in the Philippines. In this one-sided concrete forming arrangement, the SUPER STUD® panels serve as the primary structure and resist the full fluid-concrete load with no back form to push against. 32 mm (1-1/4 inch) coil anchors tie each gang to the floor slab and transfer those loads safely into the completed structure. Crews pre-assembled the gang forms in an on-site fabrication area, building sets 3.6 meters (12 feet) wide and up to 5.45 meters (17.9 feet) tall, then crane-set each one into final position. Work platforms attached to the E-BEAM® walers gave placement crews a safe, tied-off position at the top of the wall and eliminated the need for separate scaffolding. One crane pick delivered forming, access, and pouring in a single system.

One-sided retaining wall constructed with EFCO E-BEAM & SUPER STUD® formwork gang, Taguig City, Philippines

When Single-Sided Wall Height Jumps to 5.45 Meters (17.9 Feet)

When single-sided wall heights jump, the pressure climbs sharply, and the engineered formwork has to be redesigned to carry it without touching the finish. The toughest test came in the basement, where retaining wall height rose to 5.45 meters (17.9 feet) from roughly 3.0 meters (9.8 feet) on the lower levels. EFCO’s engineers reworked the configuration, adjusting SUPER STUD® spacing, E-BEAM® arrangement, and coil anchor layout to safely carry the higher loads. Just as important, the redesign protected the surface: it added no form marks and introduced no misalignment risk. Because the exposed face drives the architecture, EFCO built the formwork design around the precise locations of the phenolic plywood form joints, producing the clean, symmetrical joint lines visible across the finished walls. Monolith limited each phenolic plywood sheet to four uses to keep the surface consistent from the first pour to the last, and the retaining wall forms held alignment tight enough to make that investment pay off.

Crews on site watching the formwork gang made with EFCO E-BEAM & SUPER STUD® set in place, Taguig City, Philippines

24-Hour Formwork Cycling Lowers In-Place Concrete Cost (LIPCC)

Turning engineering into cycle time, and cycle time into labor hours saved.
Every gang arrived pre-assembled; crews set the entire 100 linear meters (328 linear feet) of wall formwork for a full pour in a single day, placed concrete the next day, stripped after just 24 hours of cure, and cycled the gangs to the next location. That steady two-day rhythm is concrete cycle time reduction in its most practical form: it cut labor hours per pour and kept the crane productive instead of idle. Overhead, the E-Z DECK® elevated slab shoring and Z-BEAM® table forms covered full 3,300-square-meter (35,500-square-foot) basement floor plates at 3.5-meter (11.5-foot) floor-to-floor heights. After each deck pour, crews rolled the flying form tables to the ramp opening and flew them to the next level for immediate reuse. The biggest savings, though, came from what the project never had to do. With imperfections controlled at the form face, the bare finish required virtually no patching, rubbing, or repair, the least predictable line items on any architectural concrete job and the ones that quietly consume a budget after the pour is done.

Elevated slab shoring and table forms made with EFCO E-Z DECK® and Z-BEAM® covered the full 3,300-square-meter basement floor plates, Taguig City, Philippines

Why Monolith Construction Chose EFCO

BENCH Headquarters left no room for compromise between structural performance and architectural quality, and EFCO delivered both. Engineering support adapted the system as wall heights and pressures increased rather than asking the contractor to work around a fixed catalog. Field service stayed close to the project team through design changes, installation, and every critical pour. The result is a project where speed, safety, and first-time finish quality reinforce each other, which is exactly what Lowest In-Place Concrete Cost (LIPCC) means in practice: the total cost of concrete in place, not the price of the panel. And the story is not finished. As the tower rises, EFCO’s POWER TOWER® PT-50 self-climbing formwork system will form the building’s two core walls, lifting itself off the completed structure instead of tying up the tower crane. Watch for a project update in a future issue of FORM MARKS.

EFCO Equipment

E-BEAM & SUPER STUD®

E-Z DECK®

Z-BEAM®

Monolith Construction & Development Corporation

Harley Tagatac, Area Manager

Osmund Fernandez, Project Manager

Dexter Pepito, Project In-Charge

EFCO Formwork Specialists – Philippines

Michael Victor Ong, District Manager

Abunasif A. Gubat, Territory Manager

Jeanna Fernandez, District Engineer

Jey-M Salon, Field Supervisor

View a PDF version of this project.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is architectural concrete formwork?

Architectural concrete formwork is formwork used where the as-cast concrete surface is the finished surface, with no plaster, paint, or cladding to follow. Because the form face transfers directly into the permanent appearance of the building, joint locations, tie patterns, panel alignment, and form-face material all become design decisions rather than construction details. At BENCH Headquarters, EFCO laid out the forming plan around the exact positions of the phenolic plywood joints so the resulting lines would read as intentional architecture.

What is single-sided wall formwork?

Single-sided wall formwork, also called one-sided concrete forming, forms only one face of a wall when concrete is placed against an existing surface such as a support of excavation, rock, or an adjacent structure. With no opposing form to tie to, the system itself must resist the full lateral pressure of the pour and transfer it into the completed structure below. At BENCH Headquarters, EFCO SUPER STUD® panels anchored to the floor slab with 32 mm (1-1/4 inch) coil anchors formed tie-less basement retaining walls up to 5.45 meters (17.9 feet) tall.

How soon can you strip formwork after a pour?

Formwork removal time depends on the concrete mix, ambient conditions, the structural role of the element, and the strength the engineer of record requires before stripping. On the BENCH Headquarters basement walls, Monolith stripped after 24 hours of cure and cycled the gang forms to the next location, giving a repeatable two-day set-pour-strip rhythm. That schedule was the contractor’s and engineer’s to set. What the formwork contributed was the ability to hold it: pre-assembled gangs that went up in one day and came off cleanly enough to reuse immediately.

What is self-climbing formwork?

Self-climbing formwork is a wall-forming system that raises itself from one pour to the next using hydraulic jacks that react against anchors cast into the concrete below, rather than being lifted by a crane. Because each climb is independent of the crane, core wall formwork can keep cycling while the crane serves the rest of the tower, which is usually the constraint on a high-rise concrete forming schedule. It also carries its own working and trailing platforms, so crews have a permanent guarded workspace at every level. At BENCH Headquarters, EFCO’s PT-50 self-climbing system will form the two core walls as the tower rises above the basement work described here.

What is Lowest In-Place Concrete Cost?

Lowest In-Place Concrete Cost (LIPCC) is EFCO’s approach to reducing the total cost of concrete in place rather than the purchase or rental price of formwork alone. It counts cycle time, crew hours, crane time, safety, engineering support, and the rework a job avoids. On this project, it meant pre-assembled gangs that set 100 linear meters (328 linear feet) in a day, table forms that flew to the next level without disassembly, and a bare finish that needed almost no patching or rubbing, which is where architectural concrete budgets are usually lost.

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