There is a general consent on the limited usage of digital technologies in constructionwhich has caused considerable delays in terms of commercial impact if compared to other rival sectors.Numerical control for an automated construction directly from digital models has now become more andmore possible, as Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) processes which generate geometrically complexphysical objects from digital 3D models is being used for production of prototypes in many industrial sectorssuch as medical, automotive, aerospace, household products and many architecture bureaus. On theother hand, there are few cases where the construction industry has seen introduction of ALM as a solutionto produce optimised structures for which few examples can be given but again limited to research orart applications. The design and build optimisation aspect which is an essential element of the ALM is inmany cases inspired from naturally existing organic systems for which the production of the object is onlymade possible by the capabilities of the ALM solution to generate complex geometries for free. Also thelate rise in awareness of its potentials among the construction and built environment community and theincreased pressure and the need for geometrically optimised built environment in regards of minimisingthe environmental impacts has rendered its implementation imminent. In this paper a review of existingapplications of Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) for production of the few objects in constructionand built environment is summarised. A case study is given to illustrate this technology's potentialcapabilities, the different methodologies which could be used and the chronological developments whichmay unfold when using ALM to simplify and speed up the transition from a novel idea to an exploitableprocess or component in construction. Consequently, the most important outcome which must be soughtfrom this review and analysis is that the construction industry is lagging behind in adopting the digitaltechnologies.
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