Identifying Levers for Mass Market Penetration of Digital Fabrication


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Date

2021-06-15

Publication Type

Conference Paper

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

Altmetric

Data

Abstract

The construction industry produces buildings and infrastructure and, hence, satisfies basic needs of modern society. It provides a considerable portion of total value added and worldwide jobs. At the same time, it is responsible for more than 11% of CO2 energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emis-sions worldwide. Digital concrete fabrication is a young, yet already broad research discipline which brings about potential for the necessary reduction of the ecological impact and for further industrial-isation of the construction industry, while being compatible with the specific requirements of flexi-bility and individuality. Still, it has not succeeded to penetrate the mass-market, largely due to lack-ing competiveness and compliance with structural integrity requirements. The present contribution comprehensively considers features of conventional construction processes to identify benefits when using digital concrete fabrication. Thereby, it addresses not only a complete substitution of conven-tional construction methods, but also solutions taking advantages of the synergic combination of traditional and novel technologies. It assesses traditional construction methods (in-situ construction and prefabricated construction) and clusters their features in order to elaborate their strengths and persistent challenges. Following a customised review on the digital fabrication methods, it identifies some new levers and opportunities for mass-market penetration of digital concrete fabrication tech-nologies in structural and civil engineering construction works.

Publication status

published

External links

Book title

Concrete Structures: New Trends for Eco-Efficiency and Performance, Proceedings of the fib Symposium 2021

Volume

54

Pages / Article No.

1904 - 1913

Publisher

International Federation for Structural Concrete

Event

18th Concrete Structures: New trends for Eco-Efficiency and Performance (fib Symposium 2021)

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

Digital fabrication (dfab); Review conventional construction; Mass market; Concrete structures

Organisational unit

09469 - Kaufmann, Walter / Kaufmann, Walter check_circle
02284 - NFS Digitale Fabrikation / NCCR Digital Fabrication

Notes

Conference lecture held on June 15, 2021

Funding

141853 - Digital Fabrication - Advanced Building Processes in Architecture (SNF)

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