Life Cycle Assessment: Smarter Materials for Sustainable Construction
Researchers have adopted an advanced digital platform called One Click LCA to compare the environmental footprint of the new concrete mix. By analysing its ingredients, production methods, and durability, they found that 3D printing with the new concrete mix can significantly reduce CO2 emissions. The platform helps designers choose greener materials for faster, more sustainable construction.
Main takeaway: The digital platform highlights the new concrete mix and enables designers to choose this eco-friendly alternative.
Designing Sustainable Homes with 3D Printing
Inspired by the New European Bauhaus values — Beautiful, Sustainable, Together, researchers explored how 3D concrete printing could transform housing. They identified five types of homes, from mid-rise buildings to emergency shelters, that suit this technology. A digital framework was built to measure environmental and social impact across the building’s life cycle. Early tests show that using low-carbon cement mixes with aluminium fibres reduces CO2 and waste.
Main achievements:
• Defined housing types that match sustainability and design goals
• Cut carbon and waste with smarter materials and workflows
• Enabled modular, accessible design for co-creation
Simulating Concrete Behaviour with Physics
To understand how printed concrete behaves immediately after extrusion, scientists ran 450 simulations using physics-based models. These simulations tracked stress, strain, and deformation over time. The results feed into a digital twin, a virtual replica of the construction process, that helps predict performance and will be further expanded to support design optimization.
Why it matters: This modelling links material science with real-world building, making construction safer and smarter.
Using AI to Monitor Concrete Printing
Researchers tested how artificial intelligence can improve the 3DCP process. They used sensor data and video footage to train models that recognize printed layers and measure features like width and height. By combining rule-based approaches with probabilistic models (like Bayesian networks), they built tools that can predict outcomes even with limited data. These will be part of a browser-based system for real-time quality control.
SCENE-B builds on this by using foundation AI models—pre-trained systems with broad intelligence that can adapt to complex, unstructured fabrication environments without retraining.
Motivation: The combination of rule-based algorithms with AI models provides a way to balance handling complexity with robustness.
A Digital Toolkit for Architects
Imagine designing buildings where all concrete elements are sustainable and ready to be 3D printed. That’s the idea behind a new digital toolkit for architects. It checks if your design can be printed, transforms it into solid forms and plans the most efficient way to build it, saving materials and supporting green goals like the EU’s Green Deal. Using open-source software and smart automation, this tool bridges the gap between creativity and construction for a greener future.
Four Ways to Model Smarter Concrete
SCENE-B researchers are building a digital twin system combining four modelling approaches:
• Physics-based: Simulates how concrete behaves under stress
• Data-driven: Uses AI to interpret video and sensor data
• Geometric: Builds detailed 3D models without the need for expensive scanning equipment
• Probabilistic: Predicts outcomes with limited data
Together, these tools support sustainable, high-quality construction.
Creating a Low-Carbon Concrete Mix
SCENE-B is advancing the development of a climate-friendly concrete tailored for 3D printing. The team has engineered a novel binder system that significantly reduces carbon emissions while maintaining high performance and durability. Laboratory tests confirm excellent formability, rapid setting, and strong early strength, outperforming conventional mixes. The material has been successfully shaped in the lab with stable shape retention, demonstrating its potential for automated construction. Future testing will explore alternative raw materials to further enhance sustainability and circularity.
Testing the New Mix in a 3D printer
To ensure the new mix works with standard printers, researchers ran trials using commercial mixes and different mixing systems. They measured flow, pumpability, and buildability. While the new recipe shows promise, early tests revealed heat build-up and equipment wear, challenges they’re working to solve in the next phase.
