Lecture

What opportunities do 3D printing technologies offer for architecture and construction?
Which materials are suitable for 3D printing – and how can they contribute to sustainability?
And how do we design buildings that are suitable for additive manufacturing?

This lecture introduces the technologies and design-related principles of additive manufacturing in construction. It covers the fundamentals of materials science and process-specific methods, with a particular focus on their impact on design and fabrication. 

Topics include: fabrication-oriented design principles, toolpath strategies (planar and non-planar), and aspects of robotic implementation (kinematics, path planning). 
Application scenarios, on-site (e.g., mobile robots) and off-site (e.g., prefabrication), help evaluate logistical, structural, and architectural conditions.

Seminar:

How are innovative materials for 3D printing developed and tested?
How do we design printable geometries and control the robot?

In this seminar, you will learn about the composition and requirements of 3D printing mixtures, design printable geometries, and develop slicing strategies. You will implement your own design experiments using robot simulations and 3D printing trials. During this process, you will experiment with different printing parameters and analyze how material properties and process workflows influence the printing results.

The goal is to gain a solid understanding of the interactions between design, material, and process technologies in additive manufacturing for construction and architecture.

Teaching Team:

• Professorship of Digital Fabrication
  (Prof. Dr. Kathrin Dörfler, Gido Dielemans, M.Sc.)
• Chair of Materials and Methods in Digital Construction
  (Prof. Dr.-Ing Dirk Lowke, David Böhler, M.Sc, Friedrich Herding, M.Sc.)