Full-scale Additive Manufacturing: Methodologies, techniques and processes for prototyping architectural components with complex geometries

The integration of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies into the production of architectural components has demonstrated a great potential to meet the demands of customization and optimization that have been highlighted by the evolution of digital processes in architectural design. Supporting on the knowledge generated by past research conducted at the Advanced Ceramics Laboratory (ACL), this study seeks to respond to an empirical need to adapt digital production to a real-scale, making it easier to incorporate into real-world contexts.

The work provides an overview of a research on 3D Concrete Printing (3DCP) processes, following pre-fabrication logics in a laboratory environment. The work develops a set of customized extrusion systems and performs a series of experiments with different variations of cement-based mixes, in order to better understand the main control parameters of the technology and progressively increase the manufacturing scale.

With the aim of developing architectural solutions with added value, it is proposed the use of discretization processes and the application of intelligent connection systems between components to create adaptive, reversible and reusable solutions, in full size.

PHD CANDIDATE

João Ribeiro

SUPERVISORS

Bruno Figueiredo, Paulo Cruz & Aires Camões

YEAR

2020