An Environmental Perspective on 3D-Printed Façade with Plastics

Abstract

Building and construction industry is a large consumer of energy and natural resources. To mitigate its environmental impact, more sustainable construction is demanded. The integration of additive manufacturing in the building and construction industry has the potential of expanding the boundaries of architecture, reshaping the way how architects and engineers design and execute. This thesis examined the environmental impact of potential plastics (Polypropylene, Polyamide, Polycarbonate and glycol-modified version of PET) for AM façade construction via life cycle assessment tool and compared it with a conventional façade with similar functions and the same thermal property.
The results show that waste treatment is a major source of its environmental impact for recycled plastics while material production is the dominant source of the environmental impact for virgin plastics throughout their life cycle. Furthermore, a comparison between the AM façade and conventional façade implies that adopting recycled plastics to 3D-Print a façade can achieve certain environmental benefits under ideal situation while adopting virgin plastics doesn’t present evident environmental benefits against the conventional façade except virgin Polypropylene. A case study on a double-skin façade with polycarbonate coating further highlighted the importance of property waste treatment of the plastics products.
This thesis framed a model to evaluate AM facades with plastics from an environmental perspective and the knowledge of this research should be directed to help designers to make more sustainable choices in the design phase.