Author(s): Alexandros Tsamis, Ana Cecilia Toledano & Mohammed Alnaggar
Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions warming up the Earth’s atmosphere and triggering a climatic shift around the world evidence how the construction industry must provide a resilient built environment for an increasingly growing population, while at the same time reduce the use of cement and the demand for energy use from heating and cooling in an intensely urbanized world. Construction using Additive Manufacturing (AM) has gained traction in recent years, promising benefits such as: reduction in waste, building time, and need for formwork; customization and fabrication of complex geometries at no extra cost; and the reduction of human labor and on-site hazards. While most implementations of AM use cement as a primary material, development of alternative technologies that use earth-abundant, low-carbon renewable materials can be seen in projects such as Gaia by WASP, as well as efforts from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC). As a research framework, this project extends the efforts of building with renewable materials by developing a Functionally Graded Material (FGM) 3d Printing technology to create a bio-composite wall using lime, clay and hemp bast fiber. Unlike traditional, singular material deploying AM technologies, FGMs are a type of composite that use different materials according to where they are needed, with gradient transitioning between the materials to achieve non-discrete interphases. We work under the hypothesis that FGMs can achieve better strength-to-weight ratios than regular ceramics, and at the same time allow, through the 3d printing process, for an expression of the functional requirements of material change through form. While used in fields other than architecture, FGMs in AM have yet to be implemented in building construction.
Volume Editors
ISBN
978-1-944214-26-5