Following applications in other industrial sectors, the integration of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies in the production of architectural components have revealed a great potential to respond to the need of customisation and optimisation that the evolution of digital processes in architectural design has highlighted. This study establishes the foundations for research on the application of cementitious-based materials according to Material Extrusion techniques. The empirical knowledge of the investigations arising from the work of the Advanced Ceramics Laboratory (ACL), as well as parallels to other exploratory projects in 3D Printing on Concrete, supports an insight on the main control parameters inherent to the technology, allowing through experimentation to list a set of perceived issues, particularly regarding the relationship between the material and the machine. In the absence of functional concrete extrusion equipment, the presentation also describes the development of a custom laboratory-scale extrusion system that was used in the experimental tests.

This research aims to improve earth-based materials mix-design to print complex cantilevers. Simultaneously, introducing new techniques digitally and physically to enhance the process of printing self-supported cantilever surfaces. In this study, we assess the possibility of adapting this technique to earth-based material. After making the earth's rheological behavior suitable for 3D printing, a laboratory-scale printing has been carried out and the printed samples have been mechanically tested with simulating the tensile strength.

The research investigated the optimization of the mixture formulation to reach a printable paste by the rheology characterization and printing process parameters and then evaluate the printing performance, then controlling the shrinkage and deformation after printing for 3D paper printing to achieve the quality control and structural integration, and studying the mechanical and acoustical properties for 3D paper printed objects.

Given the possibility of using living materials and integrating them into architecture and digital fabrication, a set of mixtures is proposed. Chitin is the second most abundant biopolymer in the world after cellulose and is found in the shells of crustaceans, on the walls of fungi and molluscs, and also in some algae. This biopolymer can lead to versatile and biodegradable bioplastics by converting seafood residues. Moreover, the possibility of combining it with cellulose – the most abundant material in nature – holds great potential for the development of mixtures that can be used to produce components for contemporary architecture. This presentation focuses on the manipulation of mixtures based on biomaterials that can be easily considered substitutes for other materials found in our daily lives.

When interacting with light, surface geometries and clay bodies can work together to heighten the perception of depth and alter illumination. This research, developed by Isabel Ochoa and James Clarke-Hicks, investigates how 3D clay printing can generate materially responsive engagements between ceramics and light. A computational methodology is developed to produce texture and sculptural relief in ceramic surfaces. Liquid Deposition Modelling is used to study the plastic deformation of clay during wet-processing. Most 3D printing technologies are currently conceived as end-stage production processes characterized by high-fidelity between digital models and physical outputs. Stoneware and porcelain have a wide variety of working properties and ceramic traits that demand new approaches to digital tooling. By making the study of material behaviour essential to the design process, clay 3D printing enables non-linear design-to-production systems. The research outputs are a series of stoneware and porcelain screens that vary in brightness and illumination based on how light may be obstructed, reflected or transmitted across their surfaces. Prototypes are developed at full scale to understand the relationship between sensory engagement and material properties.

Traditionally, bricks are produced with an extrusion press which makes the process highly economical but limits the freedom of design, only allowing for continuously vertically perforated hollow bricks. In this regard robo-casting offers new possibilities for the implementation of more complex designs to the brick industry. The study focuses on developing new geometries with closed cavities for bricks, taking the restrictions and perspectives of additive manufacturing into account. In addition to exploring the new design possibilities, physical and mechanical properties of the structurally different additively manufactured bricks were also taken into account. The research aimed on thermally optimizing the bricks while still achieving the necessary compressive strength and demonstrate its feasibility. Three different designs were developed, manufactured and tested compared with a reference geometry in terms of their compressive strength and thermal conductivity in order to be able to draw conclusions about the prospects that robo-casting offers the brick industry.

The research investigates the material properties of additively manufactured components made of glass. Particular attention is paid to the substance-to-substance bond with a float glass plate. A successful application of material to the plate would allow the generation of new connections and constructions for facades. A pure connection via glass has many advantages – in particular compared to adhesive or bolted connections. For additively manufactured glass, material properties such as strength and maximum load-bearing capacity are derived on the basis of experiments. We propose experimental setups with maximum simplicity that allow for the isolation and derivation of individual properties – for example a modified bending test to determine the maximum tensile strength. Investigated points of interest are the connection points between the float glass plate and the applied glass, as well as the connections between layers themselves. Preliminary investigations by finite element methods indicate that the contact angle between the deposited material and the float glass pane has a major influence on the maximum stresses. The contact angle can be influenced by different temperature settings during the printing process. This also applies to the connection between the respective layers.

When fabricating complex geometries via additive manufacturing, the use of support-material often becomes a crucial necessity. Especially in extrusion-based 3D-printing, a temporary structure is often needed to enable overhanging or bridging areas of the print, which are required to realise undercuts or cavities. Also, support-structures are often used to prevent or limit distortions of the workpiece, that might occur during curing or post-processing. Robocasting as the technique of distributing clay-based raw materials for ceramic AM is such an extrusion-based technology. Due to its capability of printing quite large structures, RC yet is the most promising candidate to introduce Ceramic AM in the building industry. This paper aims to point out opportunities, as well as challenges in the use of support-material for RC. To achieve this, typical restrictions regarding geometry and printing parameters shall be identified. Following, strategies shall be developed to place support-structures, which enable an efficient production, as well as favourable material- and surface-properties.

The manufacture of architectural components driven by digital design tools and Additive Manufacturing allows the achievement of highly evolved constructive systems, more integrated into a specific reality to which it is intended to respond, resulting in unique and adapted solutions with high geometric and material performances. This work foresees the development of a constructive system that incorporates reversible and irreversible connections, being formalised in a set of gantry structures with load-bearing capacity, composed by hybrid (ceramic in collaboration with other materials) beams and columns, giving the comparative model between digital design and manufacture methods and the traditional ones.

In order to meet the demand of transparent facades, novel glass-glass connections are being developed using fused glass deposition modelling. For this purpose, molten glass is applied to a base plate made of glass. The aim is to apply additive manufacturing of glass onto Soda Lime Glass, which is standard in architectural applications. In this work, the focus is on the thermal stresses that are present during the printing process and the residual stresses that may remain in the glass product after cooling. In order to understand the individual steps of additive manufacturing of glass on a base plate, this process is divided into five steps, which will be examined individually. For each step, the temperatures during printing and cooling are recorded with the help of a thermographic camera and thermocouples. With the help of numerical simulations and photoelastic methods, the thermal and residual stresses can be examined. Here, the test setup, material properties of glass as well as first results of the investigation of heating and cooling of a base plate using a gas torch are shown.

Hard-to-reach areas on Earth or other celestial bodies are often of high scientific interest. The safety of people on site however, is sometimes difficult to guarantee. Providing habitats to protect against extreme weather events, radiation, etc. can be very expensive and can even get impossible due to the transportation of essential resources. Furthermore, the research team is unprotected during the assembly, which is an additional safety risk. To reduce the risk of the team and transportation costs of necessary resources, the habitat should be build by autonomous, solar-powered robots using only in-situ material (ice, sand, regolith,...). Therefore, the robots should use an additive manufacturing technique called “solar sintering” to connect the material in layers by melting it with concentrated solar power. The advantage of this approach is the limitation of the transportation costs to the weight of the robots. Also they can be transported to the target area and start printing way before the research team arrives.

Additive manufacturing provides new design possibilities for steel construction. Material can be used much more efficiently and placed only where it is needed. Production and assembly can be facilitated. In particular, there is great potential in this respect in fabricating structures that link several components together, referred to here as steel nodes. But what effects does the manufacturing process have on the load-bearing capacity of the manufactured component and how can its safety be assessed? The presentation deals with different aspects of the WAAM process and the material properties associated with it and makes suggestions for the design of additively manufactured steel nodes.

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) is a welding process used to build up three-dimensional structures in steel. Like other Additive Manufacturing technologies, it allows for geometrically-complex structures to be fabricated which are otherwise unfeasible to manufacture using traditional methods. The presentation presents an integrated design approach to the use of WAAM in the context of large-scaled applications, focusing on column variants of gradually-increasing geometric complexity as basis for architectural constructions. It combines material behavior and process parameter research together with a rudimentary digital twin model, with the aim of providing a digital tool to design architectural structures for WAAM. To achieve the desired geometries, necessary welding parameters are stored and applied to the digital twin model. This is complimented by multiple process-control checks, which are implemented during the printing process to ensure that an object is generated as planned. Finally, the structures are manufactured and are subjected to a critical evaluation in order to identify the possible future potential. The challenge of combining geometric complexity with manufacturing for large scale represents a next step in the integration of WAAM in steel constructions for architectural applications.

Over the last decade, robotics applied to the construction and architecture sector has evolved through the support of new programming methods, being more inclusive and accessible to non-specialists in the field of computation and robotics such as the generality of architects and students of architecture. Among others, Kuka Prc, Furobot and Compass Fab, are add-ons of Grasshopper (an API of Rhinoceros modelling software) developed with the aim of controlling robotic arms through visual programming methods, which for professionals without scripting knowledge, is an opportunity to program industrial robots effectively, taking advantage of their multiple capabilities. One of the main obstacles to the use of these technologies by non-experts is the access to practical application during the learning phase in the use of robotic manufacturing control tools. Due to the high cost of the equipment, the access to industrial robots in teaching and research contexts is still limited, namely for initial learning phases, or for the development of hacking strategies. In this respect, the present work tries to answer this problem through the creation of an inexpensive mini robot based on Arduino's TinkerKit Braccio robot whose hardware was altered to be compatible with the control from Grasshopper Add-ons. In this case, the add-on chosen was the Kuka Prc for the sake of compatibility with the Kuka robots to be installed in the new EAAD robotics laboratory in the next few months. With the use of this mini robotic arm, a robotic arm simulator is created from which it becomes possible to have physical feedback of the virtual simulation that is being generated in the computational model. To demonstrate how this workflow between computational design model, mini robot, real robot works, a structure composed of several pieces was designed with the objective of being manufactured using robotic manufacturing methods. The structure design process was automated in such a way that the structure is parametrically divided into sections compatible with the robot's working area, and subsequently folded into it. In a first step, the commands are implemented, and the manufacturing process is simulated in the digital environment. The data from this simulation is then sent to the mini robotic arm that will carry out the programmed operation. Thus, it becomes possible to better understand the specifics of operation, limitations, and control techniques, namely regarding the geometric control of the positioning of the tools and the control of arm displacements. At the same time, it allows the construction of scale prototypes, which allow both the testing of the architectural design and the robotic program generated, which will later be uploaded to the full-scale robot.