Development of Outdoor Furniture Using 3D Concrete Printing

Sustainable and digital building concepts are gaining popularity throughout the construction product's life cycle, from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and destruction. Furthermore, in order to reach Net-zero carbon buildings by 2050, the construction sector must integrate sustainable materials with novel building technologies. Additive manufacturing/3D printing in construction is one such digital technology that has brought a paradigm shift in traditional construction practices by taking the design freedom and sustainability into full swing. In this paper, we demonstrated the on-demand production of urban furniture using construction 3D printer with sustainable material and optimized part design. Sustainable 3D printable mixtures were developed by substituting ordinary Portland cement with industrial by-products and also replacing 20% river sand with slag sand. The material rheology was studied to tailor the mix design, while arch-shaped design was adopted to optimize the material distribution of the furniture. The unique application of 3D printing in the production of urban furniture shows material and CO2 emission reductions up to 63–76% and 60–69%, respectively, as compared to conventional casting method.