La stampa 3D/4D per materiali bio-eco ispirati in architettura

The opportunities of 3D printing for the construction sector have been being a topic of research, first industrial and then academic, for over a century. Throughout the last few decades, there has been a technological advancement that has led to increasingly large and efficient printers, which have made it possible to ex periment boldly with building units, both on-site and off-site. The current and ever more stringent demands for sustainable approaches are leading to the introduction of issues such as the use of natural resources, recycled materials, end-of-life recycla bility, adaptation of shape and performance to respond to changing environmental conditions. The proposal to start an experimental research within the 3D printing laboratories of the Department of Engineering of the University of Messina to con ceive prototypes for passive cooling for summer comfort that aspire to the evolution of 4D printing required a preliminary analysis of the state of the art in terms of materials, blends and geometric generation principle and a selection of pilot projects and experiments of components at international level. The lack of specific architec tural languages, systematised engineering data, life cycle evaluations has inspired the conception of an experimental program that contemplates not only the design of the prototype, but also the evaluation of the contribution that parametric model ling tools can give in the process of conception, simulation and verification; these outcomes are supposed to be validated through laboratory tests to provide objective values on which to evaluate performance standards for mechanical and thermal aspects of the designed components and to envision specific architectural lexicon.