Identifying Levers for Mass Market Penetration of Digital Fabrication

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.