For architects seeking to deliver their own signature on their next project, aesthetics plays a critical role. Their design—particularly of the building’s exterior—creates first impressions for everyone who passes by, lives, or works there. Architects can reach for many tools when designing the building envelope—a multitude of materials, a wide variety of colors, and a growing array of surfaces with different types of finished textures. Each choice they make impacts aesthetics, durability, and energy efficiency in the long run. In effect, their palette is broad in today’s modern construction environment.
Yet there exists a limiting factor in this paradigm: it has traditionally been a two-dimensional model involving flat walls. The introduction of large, construction-scale 3D printing promises to alter this design environment, resulting in game-changing aesthetics for the building envelope in shapes and sizes not previously contemplated.