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Materiality and digital Materiality and

digital
technologies: concrete technologies

experiments for the

built environment
Carla Aramouny Received 8 November 2020
Revised 3 March 2021
Department of Architecture and Design, American University of Beirut, Beirut, 19 March 2021
Lebanon Accepted 29 March 2021

Abstract
Purpose – This paper presents the applied research and design work on innovative and sustainable building
products developed by an undergraduate architecture seminar course. It presents the case for innovative uses
of cement-based products, while framing the proposals within a global shift toward environmentally
responsive and bio-integrated materials.
Design/methodology/approach – The methodology utilizes a process of hybridization between digital
fabrication and analog making methods that is framed within the larger design discourse and that intersects
the digital design process with material know-how. The approach engages local problematics and applies
advanced technology and the integration of natural behaviors to develop a rich applied design method.
Findings – Through the presented work and proposed building products, critical findings and outcomes
emerge, ones that relate to the design process itself and others to the designed products.
Originality/value – The research presented here proposes novel approaches to cement-based building
systems utilizing digital and analog fabrication, and original design solutions that engage with their context
and provide active and crucial environmental performance.
Keywords Digital fabrication, Materiality, Environmental performance, Building materials, Hybrid materials,
Sustainable concrete
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
The rapid development of advanced technologies today, namely in prototyping and
three-dimensional fabrication, is allowing unparalleled investigations of form, material
and making, right from the designer’s desktop. This has had a major impact on architecture
and the production of space and building systems, as designers move toward more
computer-based production techniques. However, at no time has material know-how become
more necessary, as the digital interface creates a disconnection with the more tactile design
process. A parallel interest in natural behaviors has also emerged trying to hybridize natural
behaviors into the designed objects, generating for many designers an aim to produce active
and environmentally productive prototypes. Equally so, designers have been looking back
closely at local and specific methods of making, attempting to move away from the generic
products pervading global architecture to generate more locally relevant alternatives.
This paper presents an applied research method that focuses on explorations in
materiality as a design framework (Brown et al., 2013) and on intersecting material know-how
with advanced tools and fabrication. It posits the possibility for applying such an iterative
material/digital design method to offer new environmental alternatives to concrete

The research and work in this paper were developed as part of the advanced elective “New Territories”
Archnet-IJAR: International
taught by the author at the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut. Journal of Architectural Research
This paper is a revised and fully developed version from an earlier draft published in SDBE 2018 under © Emerald Publishing Limited
2631-6862
the title: New Territories: Digital Materiality from Natural systems to Environmental Impact. DOI 10.1108/ARCH-11-2020-0256
ARCH composites, the most abundantly used building material by far. It advocates for integrating
natural behaviors to embed an active performance in novel composites and alternatives. It
also advocates for the iterative use of digital fabrication tools to influence the design process
and material outcome, not serve merely as prototyping tools.
This paper thus presents the above framework and illustrates alternative results through
the work of senior undergraduate students in the architecture research elective I teach.
It presents the unique ways in which each project approaches such intersections from design
to fabrication and from material behavior to technological constraints, and how the results
can provide environmentally performative possibilities for local applications.

2. Digital fabrication and digital craft

Digital fabrication today has become a crucial means of production, allowing the direct
application of three-dimensional digital models into physical prototypes. Through various
technologies, such as computer numerically controlled (CNC) routers ( CNC machines) and 3D
printers, it has transformed the ways in which designers produce physical objects, moving the
means of production from the industry into the designers’ desktop, particularly with the
proliferation of low-cost technologies. Accordingly, the role of the designer has shifted to be both
the creator and the maker, enforcing the understanding of technology and material constraints as
inherent parameters within the design process. Dimitris Papanikolaou (2012) interlinks
technological constraints with design conception where designers must today holistically
incorporate machine, material and computational constraints in their design process.
This hybrid of the designer/maker has brought forth the notion of digital craft, linking
the digitalized creation process to a crafts-inspired process of making. In his seminal
work, from 2008, Branko Kolaveric defines the notion of “digital craft” in his text “The
Risky Craft of Digital Making” (Kolarevic, 2008) and refers to Malcolm McCullough’s
(McCullough, 1996) definition as “an emerging set of material practices based on digital
media that engage both the eye and the hand, albeit in an indirect way.” He outlines several
key attributes to this new craft, such as the embedding of material understanding in the
digital design process, the linking of the hand and the mind in the fluid form-making
workflow, the iterative process of testing prototypes in various models, and the circular
feedback between the physical prototype and the digital file. In that, he relates the
traditional understanding of craft as an art relying on a hand–mind relationship, on
material know-how and varied iterations to the current digital design and fabrication
processes. In a recent work, Antoine Picon (2020) argues that more recent shifts in the
digital in architecture have been in the notion of materiality itself and further argues for
the necessity that the digital shift in design aligns with the urgency of environmental
issues and climate change.
Consequently, this enforces the importance of not only the digital counterpart in the
design process but more significantly the material part. The methods of physical testing, trial
and error, and material know-how, become essential within the design process as parallel and
symbiotic resources to the digital forming process. This must be coupled with embedding an
“environmental consciousness” within the process toward affecting necessary change for the
built environment.

3. Nature as a design element

The natural environment has evidently been the essential model upon which architecture, the
man-made environment, has long been shaped. According to Petra Gruber (Gruber, 2011),
biomimetic design, or design modeled from natural systems, has existed as long as
architecture itself, from cave dwellings to early translations of natural systems to form the
built environment. She distinguishes between bio-inspired design and biomimetic design,
where the latter differs through its concern with the embedded systems and inherent logic
within nature rather than its form or aesthetics. It is however important to note that Materiality and
biomimetic design relies on a referential mode of translation, where the systems of nature are digital
considered as external references to be simulated.
Today, the accessibility to advanced software has given architecture the capacity to model
technologies
complexities and behaviors found in nature, whether formally or as digital simulations.
With these advancements, a deeper understanding of natural systems and their inherent
behaviors is however fundamental to design environmentally active and conscious products.
Brownwell and Swackhamer (2015), talk about a changing paradigm in today’s design world,
where a shift is happening from understanding nature as a binary opposite to the man-made
world – as an environment that needs to be controlled – to recognizing it as an extension of the
built habitat with a mutual influence from and on technology. Furthermore, they signal a
move away from learning from nature at a referential level into more hybrid approaches in
design, where natural products are directly immersed into the designed matter. They refer to
this as an approach of engagement, incorporating organic matter directly in the designed
product to create a symbiotic performative result.
Rashida Ng (Ng and Patel, 2013) further talks about the necessity to move toward more
performative material products in design by directly embedding natural systems, bringing
forth a more dynamic and responsive materiality in architecture. This approach, the move
toward hybrid and active building products, is of interest to this work and paper. How can
such intersections enhance the design of building systems so that they are embedded with a
more “natural” capacity to respond to factors of environment?
Accordingly, and considering the design disciplines as having the responsibility to
produce products with positive environmental impact, and given the allowances digital
technologies are giving the designer today, it is imperative to engage with nature in a
performative manner, to produce productive and environmentally relevant prototypes.

4. Concrete, its versatility and necessary environmental re-evaluation

Today, it is essential that we probe local resources for new building material applications and
to define new possibilities that can benefit from advancements in technology, nature as model
and digital fabrication. One of the main materials used in global construction is evidently
concrete. Concrete is considered to be the largest manufactured product by mass, and the
second most used element on earth after water (Scrivener et al., 2018). The yearly production
of concrete is massive, and results from the high demand for construction, as rapid
urbanization continues to increase, which accordingly impacts the environment negatively
due to heavy carbon emissions. The worldwide production of concrete reached 4.5 Gt in 2015,
implicating more than 8% of global CO2 emissions (Miller et al., 2018).
The reason concrete results in such a high carbon footprint is largely due to its production
process and the emission of high CO2 levels both from the energy required to produce Portland
cement, its main component, and from the release of CO2 through the chemical reaction in its
production (Crow, 2008). Additionally, the extraction of Portland cement substrates and
aggregates from quarries also has a direct immense impact on the natural environment.
The need for concrete in the built environment however continues to grow. Scrivener et al.
indicate that the replacement of concrete will be difficult, due to its relatively low cost of
production, local availability of raw materials in different regions, and its market history and
confidence. What they suggest instead is a necessity to decrease the carbon impact of
concrete through various strategies, including carbon capture and more efficient burning
processes through efficient kilns and biofuels. Of interest to this paper however are
particularly strategies in material innovation, through reducing cement quantities or through
partial replacement of cement clinker by more efficient materials and byproducts.
A first approach to lowering concrete’s carbon footprint is the integration of composite
materials within the traditional concrete mix to reduce its cement concentration, thus
ARCH reducing cement production’s carbon footprint. Some examples of composites that have
resulted from this approach include replacing part of cement clinkers with fly ash, a
byproduct of waste incinerators (Xu and Shi, 2018), or optimizing the mix with a higher
efficiency limestone-cement clinker that requires less mass (Shannon et al., 2017).
A second approach also happens at the material level, but instead involves making the
resulting concrete mix itself environmentally performative by actively removing carbon
dioxide from the air. An interesting application is the self-cleaning or photocatalytic concrete,
which works by reaction of sun rays and titanium dioxide in the mix and helps dissolve
surface dirt and absorb N02 from the surrounding air (Sopov et al., 2020).
A third approach happens at the fabrication level rather than the material composition
level through technological innovations in the making process. Robotic manufacturing with
concrete is enabling not only innovation at the material level but also in the process of
fabrication itself, removing the need for additional formwork or steel reinforcement. In the
cement-based 3-D printing project by Gosselin et al., large-scale material deposition through
robotic additive manufacturing is used to create multifunctional structural elements without
the need for formwork or additional support in an interdisciplinary process integrating
geometrical studies with material behavior and printing process (Gosselin et al., 2016).
However, more important innovations come in replacing the entire process of concrete
production and cement extraction through more biological processes. Learning from coral
reefs, this approach relies on the method of biologically grown materials using living
organisms to bind aggregates together in a strong and durable composite that simulates the
performance of concrete (Iezzi et al., 2019). Examples such as the bio cement material,
patented by Biomason, remove entirely the energy needs and heavy carbon footprint of
traditional cement burning processes (Biomason, 2020). Using site-sourced aggregates,
natural bacteria as a binding agent and a water medium, the resulting cement-like material is
strong and durable and uses ambient temperatures only for its curing.

5. Material applications in concrete, a local potential?

Scrivner et al. (2018) note that the relatively low cost of cement production worldwide shows
that it is essentially a “local material produced close to the site where it is used.” However,
they indicate that due to stringent international standards, innovation in cement production
becomes constrained. They suggest that concrete production needs to become more adapted
to local raw materials and locally relevant modes of production to radically reduce its
environmental footprint.
Looking at the case of Lebanon, the built environment in its vast majority relies on concrete
and cementitious products as main material systems by far. The wide use of concrete has had a
major implication on the natural environment as quarries, especially uncontrolled and illegal ones,
destroy major parts of the mountains and natural environment (Public Works Studio, 2019).
Demand for concrete and cement in Lebanon had been increasing consistently since the
early 1990s, peaking at around 5.5 tons of production in 2016 (BLOM Invest, 2018). Although
this number has been gradually decreasing, more so in 2019 and 2020 due to the local
economic crisis, the sector’s implication on CO2 emissions remains high. In a 2015 report by
the Ministry of Environment, data show that the cement industry contributed to more than
95% of CO2 emissions produced by major local industries (MoE/UNDP/GEF, 2015).
The problem is not only the demand for concrete but also the lack of available sustainable
practices that rethink how concrete is being used and how it can evolve to be a more
sustainable material with environmental performance. Local cement companies list their aim
for sustainable production and practices to reduce their carbon footprint, suggesting the use
of alternative fuels, more efficient burning processes, and the use of waste byproducts and
alternative raw materials. However, these initiatives remain at a development stage, with
little seen repercussions on the built and natural environments.
 For that, there is an urgent need for more critical applications using concrete in Lebanon Materiality and
and more research and development to happen between academic institutions and the digital
industry. Potential collaborations between the two can also impact local advancements
greatly in the field and help ameliorate the impact on the environment. This needs to happen
technologies
with different approaches, through sustainable production processes, but also through
innovation in material, fabrication and design.
6. Methodology and process
I have thus presented different notions that affect the design and material practice today, and
how the processes of digital fabrication and using nature as design reference have both
shifted toward a tactile and hybrid materiality with a concern for environmental urgency.
I have focused on concrete as an essential local material that requires urgent alternatives and
presented different approaches to more sustainable applications in concrete that rely on
advancements in fabrication.
These notions form the framework through which I have developed the course New
Territories, a senior professional elective in Architecture, that uses an applied design research
method to develop innovative environmental applications for building products.
This bottom-up approach engages research, trial and error, material testing, and digital
tools and prototyping. It relies on the back and forth use of analog and digital tools in an
iterative design process, using concrete and hybrid composites to design novel applications.
This type of methodology falls under the “design as scholarship” method, as an open
process that follows a research trajectory on materiality (Brown et al., 2013) where “material
experiments are broader in nature with the aim of revealing unanticipated applications” rather
than strict performance criteria. The research in the classroom is conducted as a studio
laboratory, where an experiential learning through making is key. The research posits the
following question: how can we design more environmentally performative building products
in concrete using an applied process that intersects hands-on, material and digital fabrication?
All the resulting projects that will be described in the following sections followed the
below phases in their design process:
(1) Research case studies, composites of concrete and natural behaviors;
(2) Focus on a site-specific environmental problematic;
(3) Work with concrete mixes and composites (in coordination with the engineering
concrete lab);
(4) Develop a digital model for the formwork;
(5) Fabricate using CNC or 3D printing;
(6) Cast and assess;
(7) Optimize the digital design and refabricate the formwork;
(8) Optimize the mix;
(9) Develop the final prototype
In the different experiments in concrete conducted over the years, three main trajectories or lines
of inquiry emerged, each one approaching materiality, digital fabrication and enhanced
environmental characteristics from a different position. The first trajectory relies on fluid material
experiments and flexible formwork as a design process. The second focuses on hybrid integration
of organic or inert materials to produce design products with bio-performance. The third involves
using the fabrication process itself as a design generator for more sustainable processes and
applications.
ARCH 6.1 Flexible formwork and light weight composites
The first trajectory involved the use of concrete lightweight composites, through
form-finding techniques and fluid material properties, bringing in flexible formwork into
the digital fabrication process. Student groups explored concrete plasticity and behaviors, as
they worked on the design of an exterior urban seating using digitally produced molds.
Two main projects formulated two main approaches within this trajectory.
In project 1, the students worked on an elastic concrete mix and a tensile stretched fabric
mold to produce a thin concrete seating surface, with centralized zones of depressions and
mounts, directed by functional and ergonomic requirements. They experimented with fabric
casting at various scales, using tension, gravity and materiality to develop their designed
surface. Their design shifted between digital analysis and modeling, and physical tensile
experiments. In parallel, they tested concrete and plaster composites, using gypsum, acrylic
polymers and cement mix (based on an initial material research on Jesmonite) to produce
various material tests ranging in strengths and plasticity. Their objective was to create a
more versatile and elastic concrete mix that can respond to the flexible fabric formwork.
As such, different compositions of the concrete acrylic mix were tested to reach the most
optimal results. Their material studies allowed them to move up to a real-scale installation,
using the fabric formwork casting method, with wire mesh and a carbon fiber sheet to
support the cast. The fabric-formed process enabled using the force of gravity to cast the
surface’s form inversely and also to cast it as a thin cross section of 7 cm, helped reduce its
weight further (Figure 1).
In project 2, the students utilized light aggregate substitutes and foam formwork to cast a
topographic modular seating, starting from the turtle shell analysis as a hexagonal structure,
where material, form and structural integrity are interlinked. After their analysis, they
formed a modular hexagonal system of their own, where variations in the top surface of the
unit created varied seating positions. In their material mixes, the students worked with foam
spheres and inflated balloons to hollow the body of the concrete seating and decrease its
weight. Their material experiments further focused on variations of textures and elasticity of

Figure 1.
Fabric formed concrete
with acrylic composites
(Henri Asmar, Tina
Najia, Fayssal Yatim)
their concrete mix, using stronger mixes for lower parts of the mold and more elastic mixes, Materiality and
enabled by the use of acrylic, for top layers. The design was developed digitally to produce digital
the cast formwork, which was then CNC milled in foam and wood panels. The formwork was
further lined with acrylic sheets to form the hexagonal sides, with the seating surface milled
technologies
in extruded polystyrene to provide a textured finish. The resulting seating system was
formed out of stacking the different hexagonal modules (Figure 2).

6.2 Bio-performance materials

The second trajectory focused on bio-composites and material experiments, working with
hybrid concrete mixes and using digital fabrication to create performative cladding systems
that actively respond to air pollution. The interest was mainly in addressing critical urban
and environmental issues through these materials and to bring awareness to the imminent
problems of air pollutants in Beirut. Following the research methodology, the students
researched local pollution and material case studies, experimented with concrete composites,
relying on digital and hands-on trials to develop their cladding prototypes.
Project 3 focused on the use of photocatalytic concrete to design adaptable façade louver
systems that directly absorb air pollution. The students built upon locally available louver
products to develop more efficient and novel applications that can adapt to new or existing
constructions. They became thus interested in photocatalytic concrete and its ability to
absorb N02 in the air and reduce debris through a unique chemical reaction induced by
titanium dioxide and the sun’s incidence (Sopov et al., 2020). The students developed their
formwork through digital modeling and integrated the process of physical testing to optimize
the performance of their louver system. Their system was designed as an L-shaped module
that creates various façade patterns through different combinations, positioned in a diagonal
direction to cater for various shading needs. The system can be adapted to existing or new
constructions and helps create effective shading in front of large glazed facades. Through the
use of photocatalytic concrete, the resulting cementitious material maintains a clean surface
and further captures nitrogen dioxide pollutants from the surrounding air. To enhance the
performance of their system, the students focused their design efforts on creating the most

Figure 2.
Hexagonal prototypes
with foam formwork
and inflated balloons
(Tracy Bou Zakhem,
Ghida Chehab, Nour
Hajj, Ismail Hutet)
ARCH efficient louver form that has its surfaces directed toward the direct sunrays. They integrated
small surface undulations that increase this surface area of contact by 70%, similar to solar
vacuum tubes. This was achieved through the fabrication process itself by using CNC milling
to generate the rough striations in the mold through the milling bits size. Their mix further
included fiberglass for reinforcement and Styrofoam pellets to reduce its relative weight
(Figure 3).
Project 4 was developed as a system of modular urban cladding that can reduce air
pollution at the urban street level and focused on the Beirut Corniche area with its heavy
car-generated pollution and active pedestrian activities. Their research expanded on work
done by Biota Lab (Cruz and Beckett, 2016) and referenced the latter’s experiments in
composites of concrete and moss; the moss actively helps by absorbing CO2 concentration in
its vicinity in addition to releasing oxygen. The students further looked at aerated concrete
techniques and experimented with additives to create lightweight pockets in the pour while
adding phosphate magnesium to lower the pH level of the concrete mixture, and thus allow
for better moss growth. Their design approach was informed by the naturally occurring
geometry of the Voronoi cell to create pockets and cavities of varying sizes in their cladding
system. After analyzing sun and shade incidence on their select urban wall, the students
defined parameters of cavities size and depth to allow for better moss growth. The top part of
their system, with the highest exposure to direct sunlight, was made of small cavities to
reduce sun incidence and optimize shade and moisture for moss growth. The cavities at the
base were larger allowing higher water capture and enhancing the growth of the moss.
Their design was iteratively developed and tested digitally, then transferred through CNC
into a foam mold. The resulting cast formed a portion of the cladding system (Figure 4).

6.3 Fabrication as a design generator

In the third trajectory, the process of fabrication and the formal design method were the main
instigators for the design solutions. The form was not entirely premodeled but rather relied
on the actual fabrication process and physical prototyping to produce the shape. Within the
process, clay 3-D printing was integrated to simulate the behavior of concrete in an additive
fluid deposition process.
Project 5 focused on porous concrete pavers as a system that allows water infiltration into
the ground, reduces water run-off in urban streets and includes rainwater collection for
irrigation needs of green surfaces. The design was developed as a smart urban paving system
that integrates seating, greenery and walkways along a widened pavement area in Beirut.
It was developed as a smooth surface with varying dips and hills, subdivided into a modular
triangular grid that is prefabricated and assembled together on site, replacing existing urban
pavers. The students first experimented with various mixtures of porous concrete, using
lightweight and foam-based aggregates of various sizes, and tested their water infiltration
rate. However, as they progressed to clay 3-D printing, they realized that porosity can be
achieved through the material extrusion itself as varying material viscosities and printing
speeds can generate voids and cavities in the resulting print. The clay 3-D printing process
was thus used to simulate real-scale concrete fabrication and to generate varying degrees of
porosities and surface qualities (Figure 5). The design of their system, therefore, integrated
this porosity to enhance the water infiltration performance of their urban paving system. The
resulting triangular modules had varying degrees of porosity that were controlled by the
speed and the thickness of the printed layer of clay. The modules were then stacked together
to form the urban sidewalk system, with water collection and irrigation systems integrated
within, helping maintain the incorporated greenery.
Project 6 was concerned with the Syrian refugees’ crisis in the Bekaa Valley and the need
for immediate protective shelters that can withstand the harsh weather conditions in the area.
Materiality and
digital
technologies

Figure 3.
Photocatalytic concrete
louver system
(Christelle Ayle,
Christelle Hallak, Najla
Hassanie,
Joseph Jadam)
ARCH

Figure 4.
Bio-moss cladding
system (Faisal Annab,
Taha Barazy, Hiba
Hage, Manar Khatib)

Figure 5.
Porous concrete tests
with clay 3-D printing
(Sarah Abiad, Reem
Al-Awar, Yasmine
Atoui, Soraya Hachem)
The students set out to design easy-to-assemble shelters through innovative concrete blocks Materiality and
that can be stacked together to form quick shelters while addressing issues of durability, digital
comfort, security, sustainability and cost efficiency. Their investigations began by looking at
examples of modular lightweight cement blocks with the objective to invent a new block type
technologies
that can directly generate the shelter’s form and provide high efficiency in its construction.
To enhance the sustainability of the blocks, the students looked at aggregate and fiber
replacements in their mix, through locally available waste materials.
Through research, the students became inspired by the traditional Musgum mud huts
from Cameroon, which are conical shaped dwellings with an inherent structural capacity and
an insulating thick wall, similar to shell structures found in nature. Their design elaborated
on this conical form and resulted in a dome-like shelter with a central top opening for
ventilation. A tessellated pattern was projected on the dome and formed the base grid for the
modular block system. The new “hut” would be fabricated from the resulting diamond
shaped blocks, stacked above one another with a locking compressive joint. To produce these
blocks, the students experimented with various mixes and composites of concrete, trying to
reduce the heavy aggregates in the mix and to replace them by lightweight alternatives.
To make the mix more sustainable, they researched different types of local waste byproducts,
such as chip wood, sawdust, wood bark and plastic fibers, as potential aggregates
replacement. Their aim was to integrate waste in an up-cycling strategy, reducing cost and
increasing the efficiency of their modular blocks. Their different material experiments
produced a variety of potential composites with different block weights and consistencies.
Their final variation relied on plastic waste fibers, locally sourced from grocery bags and
Styrofoam pellets (Figure 6).

7. Findings and outcomes: potential applications

The resulting work over the years has been grouped under the aforementioned three lines of
inquiry to depict the different resulting approaches to concrete applications in the course.
The outcomes generated through this work can be divided into two main outcomes:
(1) Findings related to the design and making process;
(2) Outcomes and potential applications for the designed products

Figure 6.
Shelter assembly with
composite concrete
blocks (Karen Asmar,
Lana Barakeh, Souha
Bou Matar, Omar
Darwiche)
ARCH The design process itself brought forth findings and learnings that impact the design outcome.
One key finding is the understanding of the knowledge shift that happens between the digital
model and physical prototype; this includes noting the material constraints and behavior of
concrete while re-embedding these constraints in an optimized version of the 3D model. This also
includes understanding the constraints and limitations of the machine used for fabrication and
how it affects the resulting product in order to integrate this limitation in the design. Going back
and forth between digital modeling and physical prototyping thus results in a more precise and
optimized outcome. This is illustrated in project 3 where the CNC milling constraints, the size of
the milling bit and resulting first prototypes dictated the final design of the louvers, their shape
and size of the striations to reach an optimal surface area for N02 absorption.
Another important learning is that in such an open-ended process, errors are typically
good; the errors that might occur in the prototype such as material defects or changes in
formal alignments can result in unexpected and often more performative outcomes. It is
important to understand these “errors” and to use them to feed back into the design process.
Project 5 utilized the emerging formal errors that resulted from 3-D printing with clay to
rethink their design completely. As their interest was to develop porous concrete, the gaps
and voids that emerged in their prototype from the clay printing process and material
behavior, led them to pivot their design. Their previous iteration relied on creating a
concrete mix that allowed porosity through the foam aggregates in it. This change toward
using the 3-D printing process itself through varying the speed of the material deposition
and the viscosity of the clay resulted in porous three-dimensional pavers. This was only
simulated in clay; however, more testing is necessary in the future in composite
concrete mixes.
Additionally, learning from the material mixes and types of formwork used in the process can
also result in more performative designs. Aspects such as elasticity and surface texture of the cast
concrete composite can lead to more applicable design outcomes. Projects 1 and 2 both explored
these variations of surface results through their different material trials and formwork. Project 1
focused on elasticity and the fabric used for the formwork to manipulate the resulting form,
seating positions and surface textures. Project 2 used different formwork materials from smooth
plywood for the side surfaces, to foam and stepped wooden top, in order to vary the resulting
surface finish from glossy to matte to ribbed for sitting locations.
In addition to the above findings that impacted the design process, each of the projects
presents different design and performative outcomes with potential for local applications.
Project 1 results in a versatile surface-shaped design that can adapt to different contexts,
seating and types of gathering requirements following ergonomic guidelines. This is
optimized by the method of design used by manipulating a fabric formwork using gravity.
Furthermore, the project offers cement content reduction through the thin surface cast it
generated and through the concrete composition that relied on an acrylic, gypsum and
cement mixture while using wire mesh for strengthening.
Project 2 creates a modular seating system that has the flexibility to be multiplied and adapted
to different contexts. It uses a straightforward casting method with cheap formwork that enables
variations of surface textures. To reduce the volume of this cast, the inflated balloons,
strategically positioned within the mold, radically reduce the concrete volume, cutting it by almost
half while maintaining the module’s structural consistency.
The louver system developed in project 3 has the potential to be applied to different
existing glass facades as an add-on system that optimizes both shading needs and urban
pollution extraction. The design itself can be positioned and grouped in different
arrangements to better respond to sun shading or visual needs. Furthermore, the
embedded striations developed as part of the louver surface through casting also show a
design aspect that allows a higher surface area of 70% and corresponding pollution
absorption rate by the louver.
 Project 4’s design raises the potential for urban cladding at the street level to become Materiality and
environmentally efficient and to reduce CO2 concentration by the optimized shape of the digital
designed cavities that enhance moss growth. The concrete bio-moss module can be applied
to any street level façade in areas with critical pedestrian activities and high vehicular
technologies
emissions and can enhance the street experience through an oxygen-generating green
aesthetic.
The paving system of project 5 creates a 3-D urban pavement that allows various
activities to take place, and to collect water for urban irrigation needs. The in situ potential of
the concrete 3-D printing process can result in more customized options rather than repetitive
prototypes, adapting to the specifications of the urban context. The innovative application is
further observed in using the process of 3-D printing to produce the porosity in the design
outcome, reducing the reliance on aggregates.
Project 6 creates a dynamic modular Concrete Masonry Units (CMU) block that enables
rapid and cheaper construction with the direct integration of joints and openings. The design
also helps in locally upcycling waste by-products and to reduce concrete reinforcement and
cement content by replacing aggregates with waste materials.
The different project outcomes thus remain as experimental design solutions, which
are assessed through research and initial testing; however, more scientifically proven
testing in future phases to verify the results and exact environmental performance
capability is still required. Further testing in coordination with experts and engineers
would be key to reach verifiable products. Potential testing includes the exact reduction
of cement content, measuring precisely the pollutants’ absorption rate, and verifying
compactness, strength and water absorption of the resulting concrete modules. The
design experiments presented here however do offer a potential to link such academic
work to industrial applications, which through further development can be turned into
market-ready building products.

8. Conclusion
The applied research and design process pushed the students to consider an environmental
and design problematic in an open-ended fashion, to approach it as an opportunity for
experimentation rather than as a problem-solving endeavor. The gained know-how in both
digital and physical methods of making, with all the associated constraints and results, was
more significant through the process itself rather than the final outcome alone. The research
presented the students with the opportunity to gain innovative and thorough understanding
of the correlation between environment, materials, technology and design.
The design objective also positioned the need to rethink local concrete applications and to
apply new knowledge production at the level of innovations in building systems and their
design to enforce more sustainable changes for the built environment. The research and
design methodology tried to show the persisting importance of material knowledge while
engaging with advanced digital fabrication, and the significance of learning from natural
systems and biological properties to embed an active performance in today's design process.
Through the coursework, the process further projects an essential responsibility on the new
generation of designers to address critical, environmental and local issues through design
and to benefit from advancements in technology and the design field at large to push the
boundaries of making.
With the proliferation of digital fabrication techniques, a continuous awareness of the
tactility of material and the necessity for environmentally innovative applications remain
crucial for an informed, locally relevant and critical design process.
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Corresponding author
Carla Aramouny can be contacted at: ca38@aub.edu.lb

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