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Architecture and Construction
Architectural construction applications of rapid manufacturing range from fabrication of models, to the manufacture of unique and optimized building components, and finally to the automated fabrication of entire buildings. Architects have been notoriously slow in applying computational tools to the craft, but this should change as older pencil-prone practitioners become fossilized and are replaced by a newer generation. Not only are computers a natural part of the environment of these more recently trained individuals, but they're a necessary tool for describing the freeform shapes that are becoming a more frequently used element in the architectural lexicon.
Architectural Models
Architectural models can cost tens of thousands of dollars and take hundreds of man-hours to construct. While it’s possible to replace some physical conceptualization models with ever more sophisticated virtual computer modeling, it will probably always be necessary to have a physical model at some stage of a project. Clients, government zoning and approval agencies, construction personnel and others need models to gain understanding and make decisions. As progress has been made in improving the aesthetic aspects of additive fabrication and linking RM software to architectural CAD, it’s become routine to generate models using additive fabrication. The fact that there are 30,000 architectural firms with 42,000 offices in the US alone [6] has offered incentive to systems, software and CAD firms to address this potentially large market. New service bureaus have been established and several existing service bureaus have formed new divisions specifically to serve this market. Now more than twenty service bureaus specialize in the field.
Architectural Components
Rapid manufacturing offers the possibility to produce architectural components in aesthetic shapes and with load-bearing efficiencies not previously possible. Such structural members would be optimized for the requirements of a particular building, or even a specific location within that building. For example, Kevin Rotheroe has described a family of internally-reinforced structural components with high strength-to-weight ratio, which would be manufactured using additive fabrication [7]. Both their external shape and internal geometry would be manufactured according to specific building requirements. Of course, other geometric configurations are possible and an example of related work going on is a study at the Milwaukee School of Engineering of optimized lattice structures.
 
Building Construction
Contour Crafting, under development for several years at the University of Southern California, is a leading technology contender for the construction of buildings on the moon and Mars. It uses extruded materials to build structures a layer at a time by depositing a large bead of construction material, and shaping its surface using a pair of guided, controllable trowels. It's not unlike fused deposition modeling (FDM), but potentially on a huge scale and using a material mixture that hardens chemically rather than being thermoplastic.
The advantages for construction on other planets are fairly obvious. However, the technology will likely enjoy its greatest success here on earth, long before it's ever used in space. The ability to produce new freeform shapes, greatly reduce labor requirements, and combine the technology with robotics, represent major shifts in a centuries-old process. Components such as utility conduits and reinforcement members can automatically be included, and walls and other surfaces can be fabricated in a nearly finished state. Building trade unions may find it irritating to learn that while the USC group is likely the most advanced, several groups in other countries are working on related technologies.
Post-Post-(Post?) modernism
The architectural movement of Modernism resulted from the influence of the industrial machine age on the arts. Modernist buildings are essentially unembellished, functional machinery for living or working; oftentimes with their operational elements exposed to view. The works of Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier are among the most notable examples. It may well come to pass that one of the strongest influences on future architecture will arise from rapid manufacturing. The possibility that additive fabrication technologies will become pervasive both in architectural construction, and, perhaps more importantly - in most other fields, means that there is reason to expect it to give rise to a new artistic mindset. Technology that started out by making models of buildings will have come full circle by changing the artistic framework of the very buildings the models describe.
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