Bespoke Cast Facade: Design and Additive Manufacturing for Aluminum Facade Elements

Abstract

This paper presents a computational design approach and a digital fabrication method for a freeform aluminum facade made of prefabricated bespoke elements. The fabrication of customized metal elements for construction remains a challenge to this day. Traditional fabrication methods, such as sand casting, are labor intensive, while direct metal 3D printing has limitations for architecture where large-scale elements are needed. Our research investigates the use of Binder Jetting technology to 3D print sand molds for casting bespoke facade elements in aluminum. Using this approach, custom facade elements can be economically fabricated in a short time. By automating the generation of mold design for each element, an efficient digital process chain from design to fabrication was established. In search of a computational method to integrate casting constraints into the form generation and the design process, a differential growth algorithm was used. The application of this fabrication method (3D printed sand molds and casting) in architecture is demonstrated via the design and fabrication of a freeform facade-screen. The paper articulates the relationship between the fabrication process and the differential growth algorithm with a parallel process of adaptive design tools and fabrication tests to exhibit future potential of the method for architectural practice.