3D Printing: An opportunity for the sustainable development of building construction

Traditional construction processes have certain shortcomings, due to waste generation, as well as quality, safety and environmental problems, etc. In this regard, there are some technological innovations that represent an acceptable alternative to improve said construction processes in a specific country. One of them is 3D concrete printing (3DCP), which requires a printer consisting of a nozzle that extrudes and disposes layers of concrete following a previously-designed trajectory. Keeping that in mind, it is necessary to identify the main barriers that could prevent the successful implementation of this technology in a country to better target national policies and encourage the participation of the private sector. One way to achieve this is to present the main opportunities offered by this technology in the construction industry. In this research, we started with a literature review that allowed us to identify 6 opportunities and 10 barriers of 3D printing technology for whole houses. Then, a survey was designed to rate and score them through expert judgment, using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and its simplified version, Best Worst (BW), respectively. To validate this procedure, Peru was taken as an example, and 20 professionals from the construction industry with extensive professional experience were interviewed. It was thereby identified that the main opportunities are greater on-site safety, construction quality, and social benefits, while the main barriers to the implementation of full-size 3D printing are the technology under development, printing material, and the skills required for using this new technology.