CTRL+P: On Additive Manufacturing Hybrids

In 2021, a 3d printed house was contingent for a real estatedeal that would make the prospective owners the inhabitantsof one of the first 3d printed house in the United States.Listed at nearly 50% less than all other new constructionhouses on the market in its area, financial incentives ofadditive manufacturing (large format 3d printing) seemirrefutable. However, additive manufacturing’s stereotypeas a concrete-hungry material is not irrefutable. Most commercialprinting uses concrete, a non-renewable resource,making it a hard sell for environment defenders. In the timeit takes to type this sentence the global building industry willhave poured more than 19,000 bathtubs of concrete. Withconcrete being the second most widely used substance onthe planet (second only to water)1 we, as architects are longoverdue to look for alternatives to both its production fromraw material to formwork practices to its post-consumerlife. However, recent innovations in additive manufacturinghave brought issues of sustainability to the forefront asadvancements in the use of reusable, recyclable, low-carbon,bio-based and site-specific materials are rapidly developing,and experimentation is occurring at the building scale.CTRL+P embraces and develops the potentials that additivemanufacturing offers when paired with standard constructiontypes. Interested in material economy despite itsmulti-system approach, the research more broadly looks tounusual overlaps between standard practice and additivemanufacturing as a means to alleviate the “all concrete”ethos that has dominated the industry to date. CTRL+P challengesthree myths associated with additive manufacturing:

Volume Editors
Caryn Brause & Chris Flint Chatto