Design for and with 3DCP: An Integrated Early Design Stage Workflow

This paper explores how a fast-emerging fabrication process, 3D Concrete Printing (3DCP), challenges conventional workflows for architectural design, and suggests how those workflows could evolve to better incorporate critical parameters related to this fabrication technology. While 3DCP is rapidly being adopted to construct architectural projects, key aspects of design consideration remain unintegrated in the early design stage. In particular, material, printability, fabrication constraints and the assessment of sustainability metrics are considered only at the later stages of design development and fabrication. Consequently, these parameters are not leveraged to their full advantage, missing opportunities for design and material optimization. Further, without being able to evaluate 3DCP using sustainability metrics central to early design decision making, 3DCP faces a fundamental barrier to large scale adoption across the construction industry. This paper introduces a new 3DCP specific workflow that addresses these barriers. This prototypical workflow is composed of new and existing tools and allows for a more holistic design approach. It connects existing optimization, analysis and fabrication tools typically used late in the architectural design process to 3DCP-specific considerations and brings their use forward. It further integrates novel research-based 3DCP specific tools, addressing material recipes and in-process printing behavior. It bridges gaps where future research and development is required. To exemplify the workflow and demonstrate its practical application, it is applied to a case study project ‘The hybrid slab’. The hybrid slab is a series of 3DCP vaulted ceiling arches that utilize material, geometric, and assembly strategies to investigate how 3DCP can be used strategically within a hybrid construction. This application identifies a need for further development of tools that fill ‘missing gaps’ in the workflow and finds that the early inclusion of precise material information is a critical factor across geometry generation, optimization, and evaluation.