Additive Manufacturing for Repair: Continual Construction Through Bio-Based Materials

The article asks how additive manufacturing for the circular bioeconomy can create the foundation for rethinking the architectural axioms of permanence and durability, instead moving us toward a new ideal of renewability and repair. It presents a case study into additive manufacturing for repair through the 3D printing of biopolymer composites. This case study connects machine vision-based surveying of damaged panels with repair through conformal 3D printing. This deployment of bio-based materials aims to enable additive manufacturing as a method for disrupting the sharp delineation between fabrication and repair leading to new practices of continual construction. With point of departure in our bespoke systems for 3D printing and unique biopolymer composites, we examine how their particular material characteristics allow for material adhesion and buildup and how novel methods for iterative 3D printing can support design integrated strategies of repair. As part of this process, we include the sociotechnological dimension, as human-in-the-loop decision-making becomes part of the material surveying regimes necessary for damage detection. The article demonstrates processes of repair through three repair actions that address different kinds of damage.