TAILORCRETE

New industrial technologies for tailor-made concrete structures at mass customised prices

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'TailorCrete will initiate a transition from the rectangular monotony of today’s industrialised concrete buildings that dominate the European landscape, to new industrialised unique concrete structures without the need for expensive and labour-intensive manual construction processes. This will be achieved by developing new industrialised processes for concrete, and thus play a significant role in transforming the construction sector from a resource-based to a knowledge-based industry. TailorCrete combines the knowledge resources of architects, designers, concrete technologists, civil and structural engineers, robot experts with the practical experiences of key players in the construction sector in a 4-year collaborative research. It will involve intensive testing and validation of results at laboratory scale and in full-scale demonstrations in experimental buildings. TailorCrete will also make a significant contribution toward reduction of the environmental impact from construction and reduce the costs by replacing low skilled labour with high-end technologies with significant export potential. Life cycle assessment of the new technologies will be carried out in terms of costs, environmental and aesthetic aspects and performance relevance to the user. The effects of building standards and codes will be assessed. TailorCrete will develop a core of new technologies including digital architecture, new formwork and reinforcement systems and materials as well as digital fabrication tools to radically change the way concrete is currently produced and used. These technologies will replace the use of traditional formwork and thus enable greater flexibility in producing singular concrete structures with different geometric designs. Through the development and use of self-compacting concrete with robots, a link will be created between digital design and the fabrication of materials and components and ultimately to the on-site construction processes.'

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The concept involved both on-site and prefabricated elements and both load-carrying and facade elements. The project 'New industrial technologies for tailor-made concrete structures at mass customised prices' (http://www.tailorcrete.com (TAILORCRETE) combined the knowledge resources of architects, designers, concrete technologists, civil and structural engineers, and robot experts.

To enable a seamless data flow from file to factory, a digital design tool was developed. This technology for casting concrete using robotics replaced the use of traditional formwork, enabling greater flexibility in producing singular concrete structures with different geometric designs.

TAILORCRETE transitioned from rectangular form construction to new industrialised production of unique concrete structures without the need for expensive and labour-intensive manual construction processes. A crucial factor for the casting of complicated structures is the availability of self-compacting concrete. This material allows all corners of the formwork to be filled without vibration.

Weaknesses of the project included the physical separation of some collaborating partners. Also, some system and technologies require high investments in order to achieve certain production capability to ultimately improve cost efficiency in production.

Project results were widely disseminated. This was achieved through participation in seminars and conferences, scientific papers and trade magazines, a website, a private industry group and an informational brochure.

This project achieved a balance between research and innovation capability versus industrial knowledge and application experience. All results have been validated in full-scale use cases, with solid conclusions gathered related to their potential exploitability or the necessary improvements.