Modular, Flexible, Customizable Housing and 3D Printed

An experiment in architectural education

José Beirão1 , Nuno Mateus2 , João Siopa Alves3

1,2,3
Faculdade de Arquitetura, Universidade de Lisboa
1
[email protected] 2 [email protected]
3
[email protected]

Technological developments in construction always bring new expectations in

terms of design possibilities. The use of digital tools both in design exploration
and applied to explore new forms of computer controlled manufacture provide
opportunities for the emergence of new tectonics. Because these transformations
change our construction reality fast and with impacts never seen before, it is
important that architectural education follows such change and prepares students
for what will be their future really, making them capable to accept and
incorporate the tectonic implications of digital tools and construction methods in
the way they design. This paper shows a tutored approach to mass customized
housing resorting to 3D printed parametric modular construction.Please write
your abstract here by clicking this paragraph.

Keywords: caad education, mass customization, 3D printed housing

INTRODUCTION On the opposite side, contemporary culture has

Advances in technology have produced new expec- developed a strong taste for individuality which
tations in terms of design possibilities. The total im- tends to bring to the market demands regarding de-
plications in the field of architectural tectonics are yet sign customization at various levels and scales of de-
to be understood in a comprehensive way (Kolarevic sign production, where architecture, essentially due
2004). However, the housing market has already in- to a scale that induces resilience, tends to adapt in
corporated some of the peculiarities of digital tech- a slower manner. The gigantic changes in China’s
nologies in their demands forcing architects to re- cities have shown clearly that the architectural hous-
spond to architectural problems in a very different ing market is still guided by the mass production
way than traditionally used to offer. Housing in par- paradigm and is far from convincing investors that
ticular is very much affected, qualitatively speaking, difference and personalization are technologically
by the requests for fast, large scale housing develop- available commodities.
ments. Typically, the market requests fast responses Regardless of this reality, architectural education
and puts all responsibilities on the architects. The seems to maintain mostly traditional curricula with-
market wants, more, better, cheaper and more re- out truly questioning the implications of this status
sponsibility. quo in the education curricula. It is not just a ques-

CAAD EDUCATION | Practices - Volume 1 - eCAADe 36 | 381

 tion of including contents where CAD or BIM tools not the whole house) can be 3D printed [1],
are taught, but to acknowledge that the new reality [2], [3]; (b) a parametric (or generative) model
implies design questions and approaches that might may produce a diversity of objects that al-
not be addressed without resorting to new techno- though different can be printed with similar
logical methods. Methods are indeed the key issues, effort - i.e., a project, or parts composing a
not the tools. This implies clearly adequate peda- project, can be different and printed with sim-
gogic strategy. ilar effort; (c) materials technology develops
Facts in present architectural reality tell us that further and further more materials tailored to
radical changes are close to occur. Let us point some: design specifications that may be used in dig-
ital prints allowing to print houses or parts of
1. Architectural production is becoming more houses with materials technically prescribed
and more digital, the present paradigm be- for a specific performance whether such per-
ing the production of digitally informed archi- formance is simply aesthetical or defined in
tectural integrated models by resorting to BIM terms of physical behavior (Jancic 2016), (Ox-
software. man, 2010), (Van Wijk and Van Wijk 2015).
2. Rule based design, whether more parametric
or more recursive allow the exploration of de- These facts support the argument that construction
sign variations in a scale never seen before. tectonics will change, and these changes will also
Such types of exploration allow for two pos- change drastically our way of designing houses. It is
sible attitudes in a design process: (1) aug- the responsibility of architectural schools to address
menting the scope of design exploration to- this new reality and prepare students for it. The un-
wards an extreme extent (a strive for excel- derlying assumption is that such reality requires new
lence based on raising the degree of experi- teaching methods and new approaches to architec-
mentation and trial) (Kolarevic 2004); and (2) tural education.
the exploration of systems of design objects, This paper departs from this assumption and re-
by resorting to rule based design languages ports the results of a final architecture master project
and therefore producing sets of object varia- where the design problem was set based on a few
tions within some predefined spatial and/or technological assumptions to architecturally explore
formal type where a specific instantiation may their tectonic implications.
be the subject of some form of customization
or adaptation to specific needs (Duarte 2005). FRAMEWORK
3. Society demands more and more the produc- Before detailing it is important to explain the frame-
tion of originality, diversity, customizable so- work upon which the Final Master Architecture
lutions, cheaper solutions, but faster, more Project is developed at the Faculty of Architecture
efficiently and tailored to the users’ idiosyn- at the University of Lisbon. The program starts at
crasies (Ratti 2015). the first semester of the fifth year of studies (9th
4. Digital fabrication raised astronomically the semester) where a large study area is given to all the
expectations regarding architectural produc- students. The urban scale approach and analysis is
tion. Still far from a totally digital production, developed during this semester and involves collab-
the idea that we may produce architecture orative work. This stage allows the students to collect
from sketch to construction in a continuously detailed information on their study areas developing
digital flow has entered the expectations of a deep knowledge of its problems and morphologi-
the market. Some facts can be highlighted cal characteristics. After this semester, and after at-
in this context: (a) architectural elements (if tending a course on research methodology, the stu-

382 | eCAADe 36 - CAAD EDUCATION | Practices - Volume 1

dents develop their Master Project proposal which at 3. After the survey, a research question was for-
this stage is simply a short summary of goals drawn mulated: what are the impacts of 3D printing
upon an architectural problem that was identified in the production of housing architectural de-
during the analytical work. From this point onwards, signs? What are the new tectonics of housing
their work is supervised following a tutorial princi- design within the reality of 3D printing? What
ple, and the students become totally responsible for will be a new architectural expression based
the direction their work takes together with the guid- on the possibilities of digital fabrication?
ance from their supervisors. The master student is 4. From these questions, the student defined a
therefore guided towards framing his/her own de- set of assumptions to guide a housing design
sign problem. proposal: (a) The design result should be a sys-
In the case exposed in this paper, the student tem able to produce several house types pro-
started by presenting his will to explore the use viding product customization; (b) The design
of digital fabrication in architectural design. This process should resort as much as possible to
generic intention became a specific program involv- digital tools and techniques trying to explore
ing research and design which had as generic inten- design potentials that otherwise would not
sion the exploration of digital tectonics in housing ar- be possible; (c) The design should explore the
chitecture. tectonics of a new hypothetical material con-
sidering that this material congregates a set of
METHODOLOGY properties based on state of the art already ex-
Once the generic intention of exploring digital tec- istent construction realities; these were: con-
tonics in housing architecture was defined, and lean- crete based material, coloured, structurally re-
ing on his supervisors’ advice, the student further de- sistant, amenable for printing resorting to a
tailed the scope of his work. The role of supervision CNC extrusion head; (d)The geometrical limi-
at this point was to set together with the student a tations of the printed parts should result from
consistent methodology that could outline and sup- the constraints of a hypothetical (but plausi-
port his work from the research contents to the de- ble) printer size; (e) The printed parts should
sign tasks. be building components, modular but para-
The applied methodology set together with the metrically adjustable to shape variations in
student followed a sequence of stages: the lot; (f ) Material appearance should be that
resulting from the material and printing tech-
1. Literature review and survey on the uses nique.
of digital fabrication in architecture practice 5. Design process resorting to digital techniques
with a strong focus on the use of 3D printing. including digital prototyping techniques such
The main goal at this stage was the identifica- as FDM printing, CNC milling and laser cut-
tion of the present state of 3D printing in con- ting. In this case, the chosen techniques were
struction and envisioned potentials found in those available at the Faculty of Architecture
the literature. and essentially an FDM printer built by the
2. Literature review and survey on architectural student himself.
practice with the purpose of identifying the
advances and state of the art on the use of
prototyping techniques as methods to sup- PRE-REQUISITES
port architectural ideation and design at the This work would not have been possible if the stu-
office, more specifically regarding the use of dent had not been able to acquire some preliminary
3D printing during the design process. knowledge and experience, namely on parametric

CAAD EDUCATION | Practices - Volume 1 - eCAADe 36 | 383

 Figure 1
Material
experimentation
and test prints.

modelling and on 3D printing. For this he learned digital techniques. This workshop had the format of
3D modelling using Rhinoceros and parametric mod- a one-month intensive summer workshop.
elling using Grasshopper following a course on para-
metric modelling at the Faculty of Architecture. He Figure 2
also had an internship at DUS Architects in Ams- Customized printer
terdam where he was able to follow their seminal and printing
project: the 3D Printed Canal House [1], where he experiments.
became acquainted with the complexity of real scale
architectural 3D printing, but also provided him the
knowledge on how to address many of the technical
construction issues involved in this type of construc-
tion technique, namely, structural problems, wall de-
sign, embedded infrastructure and material issues.
After this experience, the student participated
in a workshop on cork design developed at the Fac-
ulty of Architecture at the University of Lisbon [4]
where he tried to develop a printable material us-
ing cork dust (see figure 1). Figures 1 and 2 show
partial results of these experimentation process. the
student developed several adaptations in his own
printer to experiment several options regarding ma-
terial mixture and extrusion nozzle diameter (see fig-
ure 2). Even though this part of the work was not GOAL
totally successful, this experience prepared the stu- The main goal was to design a parametric modular
dent for difficulties and issues already posed by Jan- housing system exploring the tectonics of a new ma-
cic (2016) in his research on additive manufacture terial. The underlying ambition was to prove that the

384 | eCAADe 36 - CAAD EDUCATION | Practices - Volume 1

Figure 3
Test prints of
decorative motives
inspired by
traditional
Portuguese ceramic
tiles. On the left, a
1/1 scale model in
concrete; on the
right a set of scale
1/50 construction
modules printed
with alternative
decorative motives.

digital methods can support the production of archi- some form of dust or small grained granulated
tectural excellence and new forms of expression. natural and recyclable material. These charac-
At the root of this work lies an important assump- teristics result both from the student’s contact
tion: a hypothetical material. However, the hypo- with DUS Architects who research for a similar
thetical material at the basis of this work is not con- and from his own experiences with cork dur-
jectural. It is based on partial realities that the tech- ing the cork workshop.
nology has already accomplished that evidence not • The material is printable by layering mate-
just the desire to produce such a material but also on rial through an extrusion nozzle the same
the fact that many researchers are working on the de- way Winsun systems produce their concrete
velopment of such materials. Examples considered in houses, but assuming the future technology
this work were: the 3D printed canal house by DUS will admit a much higher definition, capable
architects [1], the WINSUN 3D printed construction of printing decorative low relief motives (see
[2] and the WASP Project [3] among others that will figure 3 - print tests performed by the stu-
not be mentioned in this paper. The students stud- dent).
ied in detail the work developed by these projects • That the material would have a light colour
and wrote a state of the art summary synthesizing the like the concrete used by Carrilho da Graça
present achievements in the fields o digital additive in the Lisbon Cruiser Terminal. The concrete
construction. Details may be consulted in the disser- used in this building is already a low weight
tation (Alves 2017). concrete containing granulated cork.
Having done an extensive survey on state of • The printed modules would be a self-
the art digital architectural manufacture, the student supporting system bearing the maximum
came down to a synthesis on the characteristics of weight of three levels. The wall prints would
the material he was expecting to use. These charac- be hollow for lowering the total construction
teristics were: weight following a three dimensional cell sys-
tem inspired by the 3D Printed Canal House
• The material is a printable concrete including

CAAD EDUCATION | Practices - Volume 1 - eCAADe 36 | 385

 Figure 4
Print test in FDM at
scale 1/10 of the
fitting detail and
hollow cell wall
construction.

but adapted to the expected nozzle diameter qualities, natural light and material expression (see
(see figure 4). figure 6). Design consistency was a must throughout
• The printing process would use a trans- the process.
portable printer that could be delivered to
the construction site with a single truck hence Figure 5
limiting the size of the printed modules (see Printer size as
figure 5). designed by the
student.

DESIGN PROCESS
The most important detail to point regarding the de-
sign process is that the student was enticed to ex-
plore the possibilities of the technique at all levels of
detail and scale, exploring not just spatial and struc-
tural concepts but also the parametric modularity of
the system, the potential to include several forms of
bas-relief motives and the exploration of texture. Fur-
thermore, in addition to the production of original
housing and architectural language, the student ex-
plored also the adaption of the system in architec-
The student was also encouraged to resort as
tural rehabilitation. The design was developed from
much as possible to the use of digital techniques in
urban scale to construction detailing. It is essen-
his design process, from testing models using FDM
tial to refer that even though the technical design
prints to the exploration of a virtual model by resort-
brief defined a 3D printable modular housing system
ing to virtual reality using software “Kubity” with VR
amenable for the production of housing customiza-
Shinecon V2 Oculus.
tion supervision kept the focus always on tectonic
The most interesting aspect of the project chal-
and architectural expression exploring both spatial

386 | eCAADe 36 - CAAD EDUCATION | Practices - Volume 1

Figure 6
Modular system
showing printed
parts. Because
parts result from 3D
printing each part
can be customized
embedding
customized
bas-relief or slight
geometrical
adaptations to fit
site irregularities.

lenge was the fact that 3D printing allowed for a slightly similar but not necessarily equal parameters
flexible interpretation of what a module in an ar- (see figure 7 and figure 8). The traditional concep-
chitectural system is. The fact that the design sys- tion of a modular system is hence questioned and si-
tem is parametric allows for a modular system to multaneously extended. Slight differences in mod-
adapt to geometry changes in site implantation even ules do not affect the modular concept nor costs or
though the type under application might be exactly other technical difficulties. On the contrary, the ad-
the same; only the sizes change to adapt to site be- vantages of modular construction can therefore be
cause modules allow parametric variation within cer- extended to situations involving slight geometrical
tain limits. Then, because fabrication is digital, mod- adaptations and shape twists that would not be pos-
ule manufacture does not depend on exact dimen- sible in traditional modular systems. Plus, modules
sions and therefore each module can be printed with can be customized even with 3D printed alternative

CAAD EDUCATION | Practices - Volume 1 - eCAADe 36 | 387

 Figure 7
Modular
composition of a
plan.

Figure 8
Parametric
deformation of the
plan. The deformed
plan feeds back to
the modules. Even
though the
parametric system
could adapt, not all
modules are
deformed still
finishes, all coming from the architect’s conception construction) of diversity and customization adapt- minimizing the
but also amenable for customization, in which a fi- able to different housing types, geometry and spatial differences.
nal user or customer might choose a preferred finish requisites. This program prepares the young archi-
from a parametric board of options. tectural professional to find tectonic expression in a
Finally, the student explored all constructive digital world, create, develop, explore and built using
possibilities of the system including how the con- digital media and prepares him/her to the challenges
struction system would solve infrastructure, techni- of a digital future under continuous transformation.
cal installations and other architectural elements that The results of this work strongly differ from stu-
could have an architectural expression based on the dio based work involving a common program dis-
digital construction characteristics (see figure 9). tributed to several students, and can only be devel-
oped in contexts like the Final Master Project pro-
CONCLUSION gram as is ran at the Faculty of architecture at Univer-
The master final project presented in this paper sity of Lisbon, which is based on individual tutorial
shows the results of a pedagogical approach to fu- teaching. The development of specific topics of re-
ture ways of producing housing. The obtained results search and design methods become therefore a pro-
show that the approach equips the student with skills gram built between student and tutors, but on the
that enable the young architect to respond to the other hand any positive result can become a teach-
new requests of the architectural market, in particu- ing experience to replicate or even apply on tradi-
lar, the fast and efficient production (from design to tional studio environment. In fact, the final architec-

388 | eCAADe 36 - CAAD EDUCATION | Practices - Volume 1

Figure 9
Detail section.

CAAD EDUCATION | Practices - Volume 1 - eCAADe 36 | 389

 ture project at this University used to have such for- VAN WIJK, A and VAN WIJK, I 2015, 3D Printing with Bio-
mat in the past and some pioneering applications of materials: Towards a Sustainable and Circular Econ-
this type of program had already been applied be- omy, IOS Press, Delft
[1] http://3dprintcanalhouse.com/about-the-3d-print-c
tween 2001 and 2007 (Duarte and Beirão 2011).
anal-house-1/
[2] http://www.winsun3d.com/En/Product/pro_inner/i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS d/1
Even though this paper’s focus resides on the ped- [3] http://www.wasproject.it/w/en/category/house/
[4] https://www.facebook.com/corkworkshop/
agogical strategy it would not have been possible
without the endeavor of João Siopa Alves who de-
veloped the design and is the author of all the im-
ages presented in the paper. His contribution ex-
tends to the paper contents. As might be under-
stood in the paper, the pedagogical strategy was
built over team work and highly depends on student
endeavor. Supervision is only possible through bidi-
rectional communication and effort. João got the
best mark given at the Faculty and a Honorable Men-
tion at the Archiprix Prize, Portugal. The other au-
thors share the responsibility of the pedagogical pro-
gram.

REFERENCES
Alves, JS 2017, A CASA METAMÓRFICA Habitação modu-
lar, flexível, personalizável e impressa, Master’s Thesis,
Faculdade de Arquitetura, Universidade de Lisboa
Duarte, JP 2005, ’Towards the Mass Customization
of Housing: The Grammar of Siza’s Houses at
Malagueira.’, Environment and Planning B: Planning
and Design, 32 (3), p. 347–380
Duarte, JP and Beirão, J 2011, ’Towards a Methodology
for Flexible Urban Design: Designing with Urban
Patterns and Shape Grammars’, Environment and
Planning B: Planning and Design, 38 (5), p. 879–902
Jancic, L 2016, Implications of the Use of Additive Manufac-
turing in Architectural Design., Ph.D. Thesis, Faculty of
Architecture, University of Ljubljana
KOLAREVIC, B 2004, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design
and Manufacturing, Taylor & Francis
LEACH, N, Turnbull, D and Williams, CJK (eds) 2004, Digi-
tal Tectonics, Wiley
OXMAN, R 2010, ’Morphogenesis in the Theory and
Methodology of Digital Tectonics’, Journal of the In-
ternational Association For Shell And Spatial Struc-
tures, 51 (3), pp. 195 - 205
Ratti, C 2015, Open Source Architecture, Thames & Hud-
son, London

390 | eCAADe 36 - CAAD EDUCATION | Practices - Volume 1