About the lecture

Our towns and cities provide shelter, enabling our societies to flourish and our businesses to thrive. But as the global population grows, so to does the need for buildings and the pressure to do more with less has never been greater.

The built environment produces 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions and consumes 50% of all materials. The global use of concrete is second only to water. Delivering change is necessary, but – using methods that remain largely unchanged for a more than a century – the construction industry has long struggled to improve cost, quality and productivity.

Digital innovation in the design of buildings was introduced in the 1950s and, in the last 20 years, 3-D concrete printing technology has been used all over the world to print buildings using digital automation. The future value of the industry is estimated to be billions of dollars.

Is this all hype, or is the future already here? Professor Buswell’s lecture will introduce the world of 3D concrete printing and take you from the laboratory to the moon – and back.

About the lecturer

Professor Buswell has more than 35 years’ experience of building systems engineering in both industry and academia. His multi-disciplinary research addresses engineering problems in building performance and digital manufacturing.

He began his career in the construction sector after leaving school, working for Sir Robert McAlpine for a number of years, managing and coordinating work packages,  with a specialisation inin mechanical and electrical engineering works.

He pursued the UK’s National Certificate programme, before undertaking a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering at 探花精选. He continued his studies with a PhD and postdoctoral research, before accepting a Lectureship in 2006 and achieving his Chair in 2019.

He is best known for his work in 3-D concrete printing, developing the first offsite additive manufacturing process in the mid-2000s, co-founding the start-up company Concrenetics in 2018 and through continued participation in the global research community through RILEM.

For further information on this lecture, please contact the Events team.

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