Research and development in additive manufacturing with concrete has become more widespread over the last decade. The processes developed range from concrete extrusion, to digital fabrication of formworks and the unification of formwork and reinforcement. Although they enable the production of increasingly material-efficient structures, the individual processes still face various challenges such as implementation of reinforcement, geometrical limitations, scaling and formation of cold joints, in particular because of the layer-based process. This research proposes an alternative method of producing concrete formworks dubbed ‘Eggshell’. Combined with a novel casting technique, its aim is to overcome these challenges and make material-efficient concrete production possible. As concrete is the most used construction material in the world its influence on the construction industry is unprecedented. Of the construction costs of concrete, formwork typically makes up 30-80% of the costs. This means formwork considerations are often a key driver in determining the design of concrete structures. Materials used to construct the formwork also have a big impact on the total ecological costs of the concrete building components. As the lifespan of all formwork is finite, this adds to the already considerable amount of waste generated by the building industry. Furthermore, traditional formwork made from steel or wood is ineffective in producing the non-standard, (double) curved geometry that characterizes many contemporary architectural designs. Using innovative means of formwork fabrication, these non-standard building components can potentially be produced in a more cost-, time- and material-efficient way. Moreover, Eggshell opens up possibilities for fabricating structurally optimized geometry, enabling a more efficient use of resources. The research builds upon previous work done as a part of an interdisciplinary master thesis in a collaboration between Gramazio Kohler Research, the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems and the Physical Chemistry of Building Materials group (ETH Zurich). In the thesis a process was developed in which a thin-shell formwork is 3D printed while a fast-hydrating concrete is simultaneously fed in. By 3D printing the formwork, complex geometries can be fabricated effectively. The printed formwork can potentially also be recycled and reused, making the process fully circular. Furthermore, reinforcement can be integrated into the structures, allowing for the creation of structural building components.

In the context of western linear resource culture, this work represents a socio-technical approach to circularity in the built environment. Object-oriented programming is explored as design method for collaborative domestic environments, in particular to promote circular cooking adapted to local socio-cultural practices.

There is a large pressure on the construction industry in the Netherlands because there are not enough skilled employees and 1 million new homes need to be built before 2030. TheNewMakers (TNM) want to radically change how buildings are being constructed in order to speed up the building process. TNM is applying their LEGO inspired building system that consists out of a database with building blocks. One of these building blocks is a wall component, which is applied in the façade of a tiny house. The aim of this research is to apply a robot to assemble CNC cut elements into this wall component. To achieve this goal, the wall component will be redesigned with the main focus on reducing the automatic assembly time.

Literature research was conducted and a robotic assembly process hypothesis was made. This robotic process hypothesis provided input for: a robotic assembly experiment and a robotic simulation. For the experiment only a small robot was available and, therefore, only a section of the wall component was considered. The experiment was conducted in collaboration with HBO mechatronic students. This experiment helped to physically test the suggested improvements of the wall component. The robotic simulation helped to measure how long it would take when a large robot would assemble the whole wall component. This allowed a time comparison between the simulated robotic and manual assembly process of the whole wall component.

The literature research helped to choose a robot for the robotic assembly process hypothesis, which was the industrial robot Smart5 NJ 110-3.0 from Comau. Redesigning the elements of the wall component allowed for an easier assembly sequence. Besides that, extra geometry tolerances ensured certain steps of the robotic assembly process could be performed faster and were less prone to failure.

The robotic simulation showed that the robot is at least 1,17 times faster than a human, which would mean the annual production of the robot is about 5,5 times higher. The CNC milling process takes about 8 times more than the robotic assembly process.

The role of the architect as a “master builder”, or someone who possessed a deep knowledge about the materials and ways to use them, has recently disappeared in favour of technical specialisation. The distancing of the architect from the actual construction site coincides with the emergence of digital design environments that provide seemingly abundant design choices yet draw the attention away from the fabricability of them. Often, matter is considered as a homogeneous element that “receives” the form. However, in case of structures such as the woven ones, the material nature of which constitutes their most unique characteristic and dictates their form up to a large extent, the integration of materiality as an active agent in the design process is imperative.

This study explores this new relationship between form, materiality and structural performance through the proposal of a theoretical framework and an original digital tool, SpaceWeave, developed in Grasshopper for Rhino in collaboration with the Karamba plug-in for structural analysis. SpaceWeave aims to facilitate the generation, modelling and preliminary structural analysis of woven structures during the early design phase. The role of material properties in a design workflow, the advantages and limitations of designing and structurally analysing in a parametric setting, as well as the correlation between weave parameters and structural behaviour of the resulting structures are discussed.

This thesis is a inquiry into the idea of involving a human aspect in digital fabrication process, creating a poetic expression by developing a open dialogue between digital tools and the designers.

Common Reed (Phragmites Australis) is an abundantly available, sustainable construction material that can be found throughout the world. Reed is most commonly used for thatch roofing in Europe, providing insulation and a weather-tight surface. Elsewhere, traditional techniques of weaving and bundling reeds have long been used to create entire buildings. This research develops a new alternative to these techniques with the aim of showcasing the ability of reed to perform as structure, insulation, and cladding all at once. In the Netherlands, the availability of inexpensive imported reed has led to a decline in demand for Dutch reed for thatching. This is problematic as the management of reed beds is essential for nature conservation. The research aims to promote the use of Dutch reed for construction through utilising a digital production chain in order to reduce labour costs. Through an iterative process of designing from the micro to the macro scale and by experimenting with robotic assembly, the result is a reed-based system in the form of discrete components that can be configured to create a variety of structures. The project questions permanence in architecture, through the proposal of a series of nature observation structures for the National Park Duinen van Texel. The structures are intended to last ten to twenty years and utilise completely biodegradable materials which can be disassembled whenever necessary. This semi-permanence allows for future flexibility and ensures preservation of the natural environment. Physical prototyping and testing of the proposed robotic assembly process validates the approach.

Since 3D printing is relatively new in the architecture applications, exploring how it could be integrated with environment-friendly materials as clay could lead to a more sustainable approach for materialising complex building components.
This research is investigating the answer to the research question “What are the printing techniques and tools that can help integrate the clay as an environment-friendly material, into the 3d printing of building components, while maintaining the required indoor and outdoor performance quality?”. The research was divided into four aspects of exploration and design. Clay as a printing material to find the most suitable type for architectural components, as well as material experiments to find the best mixture for printability. Displacement ventilation system as a Wall component to be prototyped, it was designed and CFD analysis verified the designs. Robotic fabrication as the process considered while designing, from Grasshopper environment and creating a slicer algorithm to robot program generation. Lastly, an Extrusion system and hardware tools for printing to materialise a prototype design. Out of this process, a final prototype was created. Eventually, a design guide was created and recommended process developments were illustrated. Lastly, the aspects that require further development and the limitations were concluded. This research sets a base for whoever is interested in pushing the limits of sustainable materials, like clay, to new boundaries within the new digital fabrication technologies evolving.

This research investigates the potential of 3D printed sand moulds for casting structural glass column having optimised cross section. Conventionally, Glass, in architectural industry, has been used in form of sheets (Float glass) due to ease of fabrication of planar sheets, but in last few years, cast glass bricks have been used for creating structural wall/ envelope of few architectural projects namely, Atocha memorial (Spain), Optical house (Japan) and crystal house (Amsterdam) due to its high compressive strength. Cast glass offers many advantages over float glass, but, the reason for limited use of it, in the industry is due to annealing time. Thicker the section of glass, more time is required to anneal the element. To reduce this annealing time, one of the most promising solutions is to use an optimised geometry composed of thinner sections. These optimised geometries usually are based on stress and buckling load of the element; hence they have very dynamic geometry. In order to fabricate these optimised geometries, one has to take help from digital manufacturing tools involving additive manufacturing (3D printing). 3D printing of glass is still in very primitive stage and is currently used for creating artefacts rather than structural elements. Another alternative to fabricate these complex geometries is to print the moulds and then cast glass. 3D printed Sand moulds are being used in the industry to cast optimised concrete slabs and steel nodes. Hence this research explores the feasibility of 3D printed sand moulds for casting optimised structural glass geometries. A column design as a case has been taken, for the experiment as glass having high compressive strength, comparable to steel, portrays as a perfect material for a compression only structure. The column is structurally optimised using topological optimisation and sections of the complex challenging optimised geometry are fabricated using 3D printed sand moulds as different scale and results are drawn.

The aim of this thesis is to present the outputs of a project in which pattern kerfing techniques are explored for producing responsive freeform panels out of wooden plates. Relevant research such as the ones presented by Ivanišević (2014), Zarrinmehr et al. (2017) and Ohshima et al. (2013) have shown that it is possible to bend a wooden plate by carving patterns on one or two sides of it. By this means, the plate is able to perform both single and double curved surfaces depending on the pattern design.
The main objective of this research is to find out the relationships between the
geometric parameters of the pattern and the bending capabilities of the plate and to put forward a formalized method for the design and fabrication of three-dimensional, freeform and responsive surfaces. These findings lead to complex pattern designs which enable the plates to perform three dimensional and freeform curved surfaces. Moreover, these panels can be actuated as responsive building components which answer the changing performance requirements in a space. In this research, acoustic performance is addressed by designing panels which respond to the changing acoustic needs of a lecture room.
The applied research methods on the flexibility involve experiments with physical models and a simulation in which the effect of the geometric parameters of the pattern on the bending capabilities are further elaborated. The acoustic performance is measured and calculated by means of multiple acoustic measurements.
This research outputs three main items. The first one is a parametric definition which was used to design pattern variations in order to achieve various three-dimensional freeform surfaces produced by pattern kerfing out of wooden plates. This definition is applicable in different design problems in which the design of such surfaces is needed. The second output is a series of prototypes which are produced using laser cutting and CNC milling in order to test the actual bending capabilities of the produced panels and to measure the acoustic performance based on the defined parameters related to the geometry and composition of the panels. The last output is a case study in which the developed design and fabrication techniques are demonstrated for designing a
teaching environment with better acoustic performance.

Currently the possibilities of sending humans to Mars are being developed. This ambitious and exciting goal demands a broad range of new technologies, innovations and a fresh view on current challenges we are facing on Earth. This also applies to the field of Architectural and Building Technology.

To start with, the need for building a sustainable habitat is established, where sustainability is defined as being as independent as possible from Earth. Therefore, being sustainable on Mars is vital. This aspect is leading to the research by focusing on using in-situ resources (ISRU).

Based on this insight, the research question was formulated: Which in situ materials and forming techniques are suitable to create an outer shell for a sustainable habitat on Mars which protects the crew from the harsh Martian environment? The Martian habitat will have to protect the crew from, among others, radiation and the extreme temperatures (ranging from 20 °C to -153 °C).

Literature study shows that ice provides an excellent shield against radiation. Moreover, ice is widely present on Mars. Hence, a number of experiments were performed to test the feasibility of using ice as a building material. The results for all three tests were the same: the addition of sand or plastic does not upgrade the building properties of the ice. However, adding salt does improve the building properties. The outcome of the experiments indicates that up to 15 ppt of NaCl increases the compressive strength from an average of 1 MPa to 4 MPa. A higher percentage of sodium chloride does not influence the compressive strength. The experiments also indicated that the colder the testing environment (up to -70°C), the higher the compressive strength of the NaCl ice is. The warmer the environment (up to +25°C), the more ductile the NaCl ice behaves.

A further challenge to building a habitat on Mars is that it has to be built semi-remotely. This thesis singles out the use of robotic technology, which can perform all tasks necessary to build the habitat, ranging from mining the ice to assembling the building. A short analysis indicates that the use of additive manufacturing has great potential for the assembling of the building. In this thesis, preliminary studies and experiments have been conducted on additive manufacturing techniques for sodium chloride ice. The main outcome is that the ice structure has a greater overall strength due to the freezing of the ice layer by layer. This technique also enables the possibility of repair during the building phase as the water fills the possible cracks, and then expands upon freezing, creating a stronger structure.

Finally, a habitat has been designed to assess if the technological findings are useful and comply with the overall habitat requirements. The “Ice Hab” uses two different techniques of building with ice; one almost completely independent from Earth materials and another one with Earth technology for redundancy. Overall, the habitat design complies well with the requirements.

In the EU, the heating and cooling of buildings consumes 14% of all energy. This is a major consumer for one type of activity, and it is compounded by the fact that 75% of it is sourced from fossil fuels. The thoughtful design of facades play a major role in the reduction of heating and cooling energy loads, and the reduction of both necessitates some form of adaptiveness between the cold season and the hot season.
This thesis investigates a subset of adaptiveness called adaptronic. It has been defined as “the integration of actuators, sensors and controls with a material or structural component“, and it means that a device would be able to sense its surroundings and thoughtfully respond to it in a designed way, using the properties of its materials. Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) were investigated to achieve adaptronic architecture, with the idea of designing a courtyard atrium that is able to sense the temperature of the outside and thereby open up in hot weather. Such a seasonal atrium could in theory result in a 21-30% heating energy saving for houses in Amsterdam, due to the Greenhouse Effect in the winter.
The aim of the thesis is therefore to investigate and design the adaptronic ability of an auto-responsive façade module, with regards to the structural and detailing aspects. Literature studies were carried out on the material behaviour and reference projects, which appreciated the complexity of the behaviour and the remoteness of the material towards designers with no specialist knowledge. A computational tool was produced in Grasshopper, a plug-in of Rhino 3D, to allow a designer with no specialist knowledge to track and predict the movement of an SMA structure as the temperature changes. The tool is now available online with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
Thereafter, a concept design was made followed by experiments and explorations with prototypes to produce and test an “engine” that could deliver the actuation for the adaptronic atrium. The prototype was able to successfully actuate a 61.3 degree rotation when electrically heated, and then return to the rest position when cooled. The prototype was also able to be actuated by the environment with the help of a constructed solar-heated chamber, under zero-stress conditions.
A final design was made for an adaptronic façade module, composed of a custom-made adaptronic engine that is fitted onto a set of 4 standard pivot-window profiles to animate them. The engine features an environmentally powered heat chamber which provides a pattern of temperature to the SMA piece. The entire module is prefabricated, so that the required precision of the hardware can be attained. In a future study, the for saving HVAC loads as a result of the modules can be quantified and thereafter the design can be optimized.
The thesis hopes to lay the foundation for both adaptronics and architecture animated by SMAs. Both show a promising future towards a smart-materials based adaptiveness for sustainable progress.

In the last decades, the improvement of innovative solutions on windows to achieve sustainability within the built environment is considered as a principal issue. Windows have long been used in buildings for daylight and ventilation. From many studies, health, comfort, and productivity are improved by the well-ventilated indoor environment, because ventilation dilutes the indoor concentration of contamination for indoor air quality. Also, too high indoor air velocity is perceived as draft or chilly, but too low air velocity may create stuffiness. Besides, natural ventilation is one of the most prominent issues of energy consumption within buildings. In summer, cooperated with chimney effect, natural ventilation can reduce the use of the cooling system. Even in winter, the operable window should dynamically adjust the ventilation rates based on actual population to control human CO2 emissions. Consequently, the use of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system will be reduced.
Windows influence the natural ventilation of a building directly and guarantee indoor comfort level, indoor air quality and minimize energy consumption. Windows can be opened manually, or center controlled mechanically. Unreachable windows for instance, in atrium or skylight, are opened by window actuators which are centrally controlled or passively controlled for the reason to optimize indoor comfort. There are advantages using window actuators in terms of controlled natural ventilation. Window actuators can make a significant contribution to a building’s indoor environment and energy performance.
Today it should be easy for the window to control opening sizes for adapting wind direction and wind load, meanwhile, the inlet air velocity should be possibly manipulated to optimize indoor air velocity. In this thesis, the dynamic way of opening windows by using window actuators for the reason of manipulating inlet wind velocity and adapting wind direction and load will be developed. Inspired by that air velocity varies on a curved surface because of curvature changing, inlet air velocity can be manipulated continuously and smoothly by changing window curvature.