3D Printing Technology in Concrete Construction (2025-04)¶

Concrete construction strategies can be material-intensive and labour-intensive and often rely on formwork that produces material waste. 3D printing (3DP) technologies could reduce the materials and time needed in concrete construction and could enable designs to optimize thermal management, energy efficiency and structural monitoring relative to formwork-based construction strategies. In this Review, we discuss 3D concrete printing and its application in construction. Large gantry printers and robotic arms have been used in the construction of houses (~100 m2), buildings (exceeding 1,000 m2) and other infrastructures, including bridges with spans up to 30 m. Advances in design and printer control, such as using topological optimization, allow for material efficiency (saving up to 70% materials) and use of features for thermal management and incorporation of vegetation into buildings. Strategies to integrate sensors for structural monitoring and materials for energy storage and thermal management of 3DP are also being developed. For example, self-sensing 3DP concrete has been integrated for structural health monitoring, and there are efforts to incorporate phase change materials to enhance thermal management. However, concrete 3DP ink has a high proportion of cement (owing to the need to balance pumpability and extrudability with buildability during printing), which increases the embodied carbon associated with 3DP concrete construction. Low-carbon inks and use of waste-derived materials are, therefore, needed to reduce the life-cycle impact and embodied carbon of 3DP concrete structures.