From Heritage to Robotic Fabrication: Lessons from Guastavino’s Thin-Tile Vaulting for Non-Planar 3D Printing

This paper presents a method for fabricating formworkfree funicular domes through robotic non-planar 3D printing. Drawing on the thin-tile vaulting logic of 19th-century Spanish architect and builder Rafael Guastavino, the research translates his geometric and procedural principles into a robotic fabrication workflow. A deformation-guided fabrication approach is introduced, in which deformation observed during printing informs adjustments to fabrication parameters and layer count. The method was demonstrated through a 1:10 Segmented Non-Planar Funicular Dome (SNPF-Dome), printed with an earth-based mixture using a six-axis robotic arm. The experiment progressed through three stages: identifying geometric limits via planar printing, testing non-planar slicing orientations, and developing a segmented construction strategy. While planar printing failed at a rise-to-span ratio of 0.4, the proposed non-planar, deformation-guided approach produced a stable, self-supporting structure under identical conditions. The research highlights how integrating historical construction intelligence with robotic fabrication can enable sustainable, formwork-free architectural structures.