from working under real company conditions. However, this needs to be structured and this is a phase we are just setting up: to encourage companies in the construction and architecture areas to have innovation teams. These companies need to learn how to have these spaces, host them, empower them, collaborate, and develop them, which is not easy. Going from a prototype to a lasting service is a scaling process that requires financing and technology. This phase also needs to be built”. Prototyping Laboratory In 2024, the PEP-Lab, CITEC's Prototyping Laboratory, was founded. "The investment in its equipment reached about one million dollars from different state funds and company collaborations, exclusively in advanced equipment. They were chosen based on international quota- tions, in addition to prospecting carried out by researchers with foreign colleagues," reports Rodrigo Garcia. He explains that this laboratory "is dedicated to supporting research and development related to undergraduate and graduate theses, as well as tours and course exercises in different careers. Architecture, civil engineering, automation engineering, and industrial design stu- dents, among others, can visit and see the equipment in operation at the Concepción Campus. In some subjects, they carry out specific tests and present reports or theses with experimental work and innovation.” Major Technological Approaches Located in a region where the predominant construction materials are wood and cement, it is technically logical that CITEC from Universidad del Bío Bío is the place where the first 3D concrete-printed house is being created. García Alvarado argues that the development of this technology responds to a significant improvement in an already existing productive area. This industry already knows how to produce concrete and how to integrate these buildings into the real estate market," he says. It allows you to improve certain gaps, without ignoring other paths, but we must explore those that have the greatest potential and can be integrated. We have to make disruptive innovations as well as progres- sive ones…” He adds that concrete technology has reached a manageable level in terms of its chemical capabilities, rapid hardening, and high strength. "It comes just at the right time because we have a material with very good ductility and at the same time we have technical training for designers and operators capable of configuring, programming, and operating ro- botic machinery. Therefore, the extent to which these parts fit together is what allows us to make greater technological approaches”. The academic emphasizes that CINTEC's interest is not for tech- nological development per se, it is not just about printing concrete for the sake of knowing how to do it, but for housing purposes. The main advantage of 3D concrete printing is productivity and speed. "That phase of building walls and roofs can be done with impressive speed, reducing the number of processes," he says. In addition, he adds that the interesting thing is that this tremendous reduction in processes implies a reconversion and decrease in the number of personnel and machinery involved. "All of the traditional construction industry is a series of tasks, of gathering many elements, thousands, just for a house, and they are reduced on a digital platform. Moreover, by creating this reconversion, it creates a very powerful capability of control and versatility, which makes it possible to meet many different demands”. That versatility can be expressed on several fronts: making designs for different climatic realities, such as Arica and Punta Arenas; designs for the elderly, for native peoples, for people receiving special care... "Chile and the world are changing socially, and our housing is not keep- ing pace," he says. "We went through a pandemic that required us to change the functions inside a house, to have more of a relationship with the outside, and we have not been able to accommodate them because our construction and real estate industry maintains fairly rigid
Rodrigo García Alvarado, an architect and research professor at the Universidad del Bío-Bío, was asked how the UBB Construction Technology Research Center, CITEC, fits into the history and evolution of industrial- ization and prefabrication in Chile. He is an architect with a degree from Universidad Católica, a master's in Computer Science from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and a doctorate in Architectural Representation, Systems and Technologies from Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya. At UBB, he also serves as the Research and Postgraduate Coordinator, at FACD. CITEC was created in 2009, but it is the result of a long history of research that began in the 1980s. It is currently directed by Professor Ariel Bobadilla and, in addition to the research work itself, its strength lies in forming a favorable triangle of collaboration with companies in the area and state support. “The Center has been a protagonist in several state activities for public building programs, and more recently the State has moved in that direc- tion, which is also being promoted centrally by CITEC's specialization in construction quality, sustainability, and industrialization," Rodrigo García points out. Because, at this stage, there is the certainty that "in order to advance in industrialization adequately, solutions must be prototyped and this cannot be done either by an academy enclosed in theoretical laboratories or by a company with the pressures it has to face”. This link between the university and company has been established through informal conversations, visits, and also through the requests of some companies that have had conflicts due to humidity or structural deterioration. Thus, a chain connection with the environment and the application of this research has been created. “We are at the very beginning of this type of collaboration. Compa- nies need to understand that if they want to develop new products or new market initiatives, they do not necessarily have to buy them from abroad or from another company. They can experience them for them- selves through these collaborations with academia, which also benefits RODRIGO GARCÍA 3D CONCRETE PRINTING: AN INNOVATIVE EXPERIENCE FROM THE BÍO-BÍO REGION Through a university/State/private company collaboration, the first 3D house in the country is being created. The academic claims that the devel- opment of this technology represents a significant improvement over an existing productive area. By: Soledad Miranda + Sebastián Rozas
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