3D printing technology in concrete construction | Nature Reviews Clean Technology

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Concrete construction strategies can be material-intensive and labour-intensive and often rely on formwork that produces material waste. 3D printing (3DP) technologies could reduce the materials and time needed in concrete construction and could enable designs to optimize thermal management, energy efficiency and structural monitoring relative to formwork-based construction strategies. In this Review, we discuss 3D concrete printing and its application in construction. Large gantry printers and robotic arms have been used in the construction of houses (~100 m2), buildings (exceeding 1,000 m2) and other infrastructures, including bridges with spans up to 30 m. Advances in design and printer control, such as using topological optimization, allow for material efficiency (saving up to 70% materials) and use of features for thermal management and incorporation of vegetation into buildings. Strategies to integrate sensors for structural monitoring and materials for energy storage and thermal management of 3DP are also being developed. For example, self-sensing 3DP concrete has been integrated for structural health monitoring, and there are efforts to incorporate phase change materials to enhance thermal management. However, concrete 3DP ink has a high proportion of cement (owing to the need to balance pumpability and extrudability with buildability during printing), which increases the embodied carbon associated with 3DP concrete construction. Low-carbon inks and use of waste-derived materials are, therefore, needed to reduce the life-cycle impact and embodied carbon of 3DP concrete structures.

3D printing (3DP) concrete construction technologies enable materials efficiency and structural integrity in designs. Through the use of topological optimization, more than 50% of material savings relative to conventional construction methods have been reported.

Owing to extrudability, pumpability and buildability constraints, printable inks require more cement than conventional concrete (often > 40% of the volume).

Low-carbon inks and materials reuse are being developed to mitigate the environmental impact associated with increased cement usage.

3DP can enable structural designs to be multifunctional and integrate thermal management, structural monitoring strategies and green walls or other vegetation.

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The authors appreciate the financial support from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RIF R6008-24 and HKUST 15231522) and HKUST ‘30 for 30’ Global Talent Acquisition Campaign.

These authors contributed equally: Yuying Zhang, Xiaohong Zhu.

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China

Yuying Zhang, Muduo Li, Chao Zhang & Daniel C. W. Tsang

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

Xiaohong Zhu & Paulo J. M. Monteiro

Key Laboratory of Urban Security and Disaster Engineering of Ministry of Education, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China

Xiaohong Zhu & Xiuli Du

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Construction Materials, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

Yamei Zhang

Department of Civil Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Nemkumar Banthia

Institute of Construction Materials, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

Viktor Mechtcherine

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

Josephine V. Carstensen

Escola Politécnica, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Paulo J. M. Monteiro

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Yuying Zhang and X.Z. contributed equally to all aspects of the article. M.L. and C.Z. researched data for the article. Yamei Zhang, X.D., N.B., V.M., J.V.C., P.J.M.M. and D.C.W.T. contributed substantially to the discussion of the content and revisions of the article. Yuying Zhang, X.Z., M.L., C.Z. and D.C.W.T. reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

Correspondence to Daniel C. W. Tsang.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Nature Reviews Clean Technology thanks M. Kan; H. Zhou, who co-reviewed with P. Zandifaez; and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Zhang, Y., Zhu, X., Li, M. et al. 3D printing technology in concrete construction. Nat. Rev. Clean Technol. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44359-025-00047-z

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Published: 04 April 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44359-025-00047-z

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