NO AM PERSPECTIVES FOR THE BUILDING INDUSTRY

From the 1990s to the 2010s, rapid prototyping, 3D printing and additive manufacturing were hyped technologies with great expectations. There was great hope that they would also trigger a surge of change in construction technology and in the specialist discipline of façade technology. This was linked to the hope that they would lead to fundamentally new ways of thinking and production methods in architecture and construction technology.

These expectations were not met in full. Based on the examples that have actually been “printed” to date and against the background of current social developments, the author not only sees a delay in development, but also predicts the premature end of the further development of additive processes for construction technology. Only a few niche products will remain from the large number of available AM technologies in construction technology that can be integrated into established production processes. This will not result in a new building typology or a 3D-printed building envelope.

There is no perspective for AM in construction technology — a provocative assertion in an essayistic (retrospective) view.