3D-Printed, High-Performance Concrete Pavilion

Concrete is the world’s second most widely used construction material, responsible for an estimated 8% of global carbon emissions due to the manufacturing of cement, its key ingredient. However, new advances in design and engineering are paving the way toward dramatically reducing the carbon footprint of structures ranging from bridges to skyscrapers.

A multidisciplinary team from the Weitzman School of Design and Penn Engineering, in collaboration with industry partner SIKA US, will unveil an innovative building system that aims to reduce carbon emissions across every stage of concrete construction. The system features a novel 3D-printed structure that is exceptionally lightweight and materially efficient, produced with an advanced, carbon-absorbing concrete formulation.

The project is led by Masoud Akbarzadeh, associate professor of architecture at Weitzman and director of the Polyhedral Structures Laboratory (PSL). He will present the structural and design principles of the system, followed by Shu Yang, the Joseph Bordogna Professor of Engineering and Applied Science and Chair of Materials Science and Engineering, who will discuss the development of the carbon-absorbing concrete for 3D printing. Dorit Aviv, assistant professor of architecture and director of the Thermal Architecture Lab (TAL), will examine the slab’s thermal performance, while Ryan Welch, principal and research director at KieranTimberlake Architects, will explain how Life Cycle Assessment validates the system’s potential to achieve carbon-negative building structures.

The event begins with a lunch reception. The presentations will be followed by a guided tour of a full-scale prototype.

Presented by the Office of the Dean as part of the Weitzman Innovation Showcase, which explores research breakthroughs in advancing climate solutions, designing healthier cities, promoting interdisciplinary innovation, and encouraging cultural exchange.

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.

Speakers

Masoud Akbarzadeh (co-PI) is a designer with a unique academic background and experience in architectural design, computation, and structural engineering. He is an Associate Professor of Architecture in Structures and Advanced Technologies and the Director of the Polyhedral Structures Laboratory (PSL). He holds a DSc from the Institute of Technology in Architecture, ETH Zurich, where he was a Research Assistant in the Block Research Group. He holds two degrees from MIT: a Master of Science in Architecture Studies (Computation) and a MArch, the thesis for which earned him the renowned SOM award. He also has a degree in Earthquake Engineering and Dynamics of Structures from the Iran University of Science and Technology and a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering. His main research topic is Three-Dimensional Graphical Statics, which is a novel geometric method of structural design in three dimensions. In 2020, Akbarzadeh received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to extend the methods of 3D/Polyhedral Graphic Statics for Education, Design, and Optimization of High-Performance Structures.  

Shu Yang (co-PI) is a Joseph Bordogna Professor of Engineering and Applied Science and Department Chair of Materials Science & Engineering at Penn. Her group is interested in synthesis, fabrication, and assembly of soft and hybrid materials, and the use of geometry and topology to create highly flexible, super-conformable, shape-changing, and energy-efficient materials. Yang received her BS degree from Fudan University, and PhD degree from Cornell University. She was recognized as Inaugural Nat Geo 33 Extraordinary Changemaker, and received American Chemical Society (ACS)’s Langmuir lectureship, The International Liquid Crystal Society Mid-Career Award (LG), and Inventor of the Year at Penn. She is a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Materials Research Society (MRS), ACS, American Physical Society (APS), and National Academy of Inventors (NAI).    

Dorit Aviv, PhD, AIA, is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Weitzman School of Design, specializing in environmental performance. She is also a faculty member of the graduate group in Material Science and Engineering (MSE). She is the director of the Thermal Architecture Lab, a cross-disciplinary laboratory at the intersection of thermodynamics, architecture and material science. Her work examines paths to decarbonization of the built environment through design and policy. Specifically, she looks at the potential synergies between renewable environmental forces and architectural materials and forms, and their impact on buildings' energy performance, air quality, and human health. Aviv's work on advanced cooling technologies has won international awards including the Holcim Award for Sustainable Design and Construction and has been published in leading scientific journals such as Applied Energy and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As a principal and research director at KieranTimberlake, Ryan Welch focuses on building performance modeling across a range of topics, including energy analysis, thermal comfort, and life cycle assessment. He has worked closely with consultant teams to craft workflows for sharing digital information between disciplines to support modeling of complex systems, including at the US Embassy in London and NYU's John A. Paulson Center. As lead developer of Tally LCA, Welch brings extensive embodied and operational carbon accounting experience to support the Polyhedral Structures Laboratory's ARPA-E funded research.  
 

Project Sponsors

Transportation

The Pennovation Center is a 15-minute drive from 30th Street Station, and a 10-minute shuttle ride from Penn's campus. Registered guests may take a chartered bus departing from Meyerson Hall at 11:30am. In addition, the Pennovation Works shuttle bus stops at the intersection of Walnut Street and 34th Street, directly across from Meyerson Hall. Look for the Penn Transit sign outside the Starbucks store; a valid PennCard is required to ride.