Structural design challenges of bio-based composites and digital fabrication towards sustainable building systems

The combination of computational design, digital fabrication, and new materials in architecture is breaking with conventional ways of building and unveiling potential construction systems to reduce waste and pollution. Bio-based fiber-polymer composites bring the opportunity to replace conventional materials by creating lightweight structures that provide design flexibility and can reduce carbon footprint. However, they become nonstandard systems in which mechanical properties are highly uncertain and depend on factors related to the raw materials or their chosen fabrication technique. These emerging nonstandard structures do not fulfill building codes or design methods, requiring new approaches to prove their safety and reliability, and their design process needs to include a global vision of the entire life of the structure. This paper runs through a methodology for the integrative structural design of non-standard building systems combining a digital-physical and multi-scale design approach and elaborates on how this method can benefit from the circularity principles of narrowing, slowing, and closing the structure’s resources loop. In particular, the paper showcases coreless filament wound bio-based composite structures as a case study to discuss their structural design challenges and reflect on the potential strategies to shorten the gap between research and industry, facilitating the realization of sustainable structures.