Recasting Concrete (2021-03)¶

This paper discusses a research-based architectural design called “Recasting Concrete,” which was designed to explore the ways in which concrete 3D printing can be utilized as an architectural pedagogy. The paper begins by discussing how current architecture-oriented concrete 3D printing research is fixated on the technology’s application in construction, and how such fixation has prevented architects from exploring other realms in which concrete 3D printing can have impact, for example, education. Recasting Concrete is then situated within digital fabrication-centric pedagogies that have increasingly been introduced in architecture schools worldwide. The studio’s structure is detailed with particular focus on the ways in which students developed experimental concrete 3D printing methodologies. The work of three student research groups is presented. The studio’s work is then put in conversation with contemporary affordance theory in order to illuminate some of the students’ conceptual learnings. Finally, the paper discusses a novel architectural design approach that students learned through their investigations into concrete 3D printing.