Housing development in the UK shows low productivity, skill shortages, a shrinking workforce, an inability to meet housing targets, and no incentive to change. The industry needs radical change through new business models, cooperation, R&D, and innovation. 3DCP looks to bring automation to the construction of buildings to mimic the manufacturing industry’s huge productivity growth from replacing labour-intensive processes. The robot can extrude concrete from a nozzle to build up layers of semi-hardened concrete, replacing the bricks and blocks of masonry cavity walls.

However, little is known about the hygrothermal performance of 3D printable concrete. For 3DCP to reach commercialization and become competitive against other construction methods, it must be able to follow standard assessment procedures, requiring the material properties of 3D printed concrete to be sufficiently understood.

3D printing could enable new multi-objective optimised wall designs, but the health and wellbeing of occupants must come first. This research focuses on experimentally quantifying hygrothermal properties of printed concrete, then assembling and testing complete 3DCP walls under real-world environmental conditions to validate modelled results against monitored data.