Material monitoring
Track temperature, curing and material behaviour during and after deposition.
← Back to what we do
3DP · ROBOTICS & SENSING
3D-printed housing, engineered for construction.
One Team. One Lab. One Platform. One Network.
3DP gantry printer concept
3DP printed housing concept
Clockwork is a construction delivery company developing new ways to design and deliver housing. Our team combines architectural design, structural engineering, digital engineering and construction methodology with AI, robotics and sensing.
Through a Canada–UK Collaborative R&D programme supported by Innovate UK, we are developing full-scale on-site 3D concrete printing as a practical delivery route for UK housing.
We develop the conventional design and the 3D-printed alternative together, compare the evidence, and deploy printing only where the technical and commercial case is proven.
- The conventional scheme remains viable throughout.
- Printing is adopted only where the technical, commercial and assurance case supports it.
Innovation without betting the project on the innovation.
One Team
Architecture, structural engineering, digital engineering and construction delivery.
One Lab
AI, simulation, robotics, sensing and continuous development.
One Platform
Clockwork Engine connects design, price, programme and simulation so decisions are tested against the same project model.
One Network
Clients, research partners, manufacturers, delivery partners, funders and future deployment sites.
Architecture: Dowen Farmer Architects · Concept-stage imagery
Three-storey concept showing the architectural language of the printed external walls.
Housing designed around the construction system
Dowen Farmer Architects has developed the housing typology around planning, spatial requirements and the opportunities and constraints of printed construction.
Printed-wall geometry, floor plates, openings and spatial layouts are developed around additive construction rather than converting a conventional house afterwards.
The result has to work as housing first. The technology comes second.
- Architect
- Dowen Farmer Architects
- Stage
- Planning and concept design
- Application
- Printed-concrete housing
Canada–UK Collaborative R&D
Innovate UK + NRC IRAP · Project 10159688
£778,489
Canada–UK R&D programme
Innovate UK and NRC IRAP, project 10159688
£299,886
Innovate UK grant
UK feasibility programme
5 delivery and research partners
Architecture · structures · materials · sensing · integration
One integrated consortium
Developing and testing
Programme status
Evidence-gated from first principles
Funded by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation.Innovate UK project 10159688.Government-backed R&D. Built for commercial deployment.
Project 10159688 is a Canada–UK collaborative R&D programme investigating on-site 3D concrete printing using recycled demolition waste, intelligent material optimisation and real-time monitoring.
The objective is not to produce another research report.
It is to determine whether the technology can become a repeatable construction method for real housing projects in the UK.
The programme is de-risking the components required for deployment:
- residential architecture developed around real planning and housing requirements;
- structural systems and printed-to-conventional interfaces;
- printable structural materials and recycled-content development;
- laboratory printing and mechanical testing;
- sensing and digital quality assurance;
- Robotics, machine control and deployment methodology;
- conventional versus printed cost and programme comparison; and
- the evidence required for assurance and full-scale deployment.
Public R&D funding gets the technology to the deployment decision. Private and strategic capital takes it into production.
A complete housing delivery team.
Clockwork leads a specialist team covering the complete route from housing design to material validation and deployment.
Consortium and delivery lead
Project integration, engineering coordination, commercial modelling, digital delivery, robotics, controls and deployment strategy.
Architecture and planning
Residential design, housing typologies, planning development and technical coordination.
Structural engineering and buildability
Structural design, material behaviour, printed-to-conventional interfaces and assurance strategy.
Research and testing
Material development, laboratory printing, specimen production and mechanical validation.
Concrete intelligence and sensing
Mix optimisation, temperature and strength monitoring, sensor integration and evidence capture.
The printer is one part of the system.
The deployable product combines housing design, structural engineering, StrataCore materials, machine control, sensing, verification and construction methodology.
One scheme. Two construction routes.
You should not have to choose between conventional construction and modern methods before the evidence exists. Keep both routes open.
We develop the housing scheme using conventional methods as the delivery baseline, while evaluating the 3D-printed option against the same brief, geometry, quantities, programme and commercial assumptions.
- 01 ·
Develop the scheme
Architecture, planning, structures and delivery requirements progress normally.
The result is a consentable and buildable scheme regardless of construction method.
- 02 ·
Establish the conventional baseline
The conventional solution is designed, priced and programmed.
This provides the control case against which 3DP must compete.
- 03 ·
Test the 3DP option
Suitable house types, plots or phases are assessed for printed construction.
Cost, programme, material performance, logistics, machine constraints, approvals and warranty strategy are compared against the baseline.
- 04 ·
Make the deployment decision
Printing proceeds only where the evidence supports it.
If it does not, the underlying development continues conventionally without throwing away the architecture, engineering or planning work.
If 3DP wins, deploy it. If it does not, the scheme continues conventionally.
StrataCore™ printed materials
The material system is being developed alongside the architecture, structural design and machine.
Three formulations define the development pathway.
StrataCore™ S1
Structural print mix
Our current structural formulation, developed for repeatable extrusion, stable layer build-up and mechanical performance.
StrataCore™ F1
Fibre-reinforced structural mix
Our current fibre-reinforced formulation. Polymer fibres are incorporated to improve post-cracking behaviour and residual capacity while retaining the fresh-state properties required for printing.
StrataCore™ R1
Recycled-content structural mix
In development
The next formulation in the StrataCore family. R1 develops F1 by replacing the conventional sand fraction with processed demolition waste, pulverised to sand-sized particles and washed before reuse.
S1 establishes the structural baseline. F1 adds post-cracking performance. R1 introduces the circular-material pathway.
Printed in layers. Continuous through the section.
3D concrete printing creates visible external layers. Sectioned specimens show no visually distinct boundary between successive deposited layers.
Mechanical testing is assessed against the true resisting section so reduced width caused by the printed bead geometry is not mistaken for weakness at the layer interface.
Geometry can be designed around. A weak interface cannot.
From material deposition to measured performance
Laboratory work converts design assumptions into evidence.
Material deposition
Establish stable fresh-state behaviour and repeatable extrusion.
Printed geometry
Measure bead shape, dimensional control, stacking and effective section.
Machine integration
Coordinate material delivery, printhead operation and gantry movement.
Specimen production
Produce controlled samples in defined print orientations.
Flexural strength testing
StrataCore™ F1 Fibre-reinforced structural mix
Double-shear bond testing
Assess bond behaviour between printed layers under double shear.
Each stage reduces uncertainty before the next one becomes expensive.
Building the machine capability in controlled steps
The programme develops physical capability through progressively larger demonstrators.
D001 · Desktop machine-control demonstrator
Proves movement, control and verification architecture cheaply before large machinery or concrete become involved.
D002 · Laboratory 3DP demonstrator
Connects design, simulation, machine control, deposition and measurement on the laboratory printer.
D003 · Construction-scale machine
Transfers the same control architecture to full-scale construction hardware.
D004 · Field deployment
Runs the complete system on a live project with material control, sensing, verification and commercial delivery in the loop.
Each machine proves something the next one depends on.
Scale changes. The control architecture does not.
Field sensing and controls
Clockwork's 3DP programme builds on extensive practical experience designing, instrumenting and measuring physical construction systems.
That includes bespoke sensors and data acquisition, instrumentation and control of full-scale drilling machinery, high-frequency movement measurement and structural monitoring on live projects.
The team's Cambridge research subsequently applied structural health monitoring at 1 Soho Place above Tottenham Court Road Underground station, comparing measured building loads with engineering predictions.
Design it. Measure what happens. Improve the next iteration.
Published engineering research
- What can we learn from Structural Health Monitoring? Part 1: Theory
- What can we learn from Structural Health Monitoring? Part 2: Case Study
Australasian Structural Engineering Conference, Engineers Australia, 2024.
The research developed from a Cambridge Engineering Master's examining how measured structural behaviour can be used to test engineering predictions, quantify uncertainty and improve future design.
Sensing and verification
The verification layer develops alongside the machine.
Position and machine monitoring
Measure machine movement, nozzle position and deposited geometry.
Structural sensing
Use strain and other measurements where appropriate to understand structural response.
Machine vision
Compare the physical build with intended geometry during construction.
Verification
Retain a traceable record of what was intended, what was measured and what was actually built.
Giatec contributes concrete optimisation, sensing technology and R&D data to this work.
Designed for assurance
Commercial deployment requires a traceable evidence path from design through materials, construction and inspection to the completed building.
We are developing the material testing, structural verification, construction methodology and quality records alongside the technology so that approval and warranty requirements shape the system before deployment.
The target is a repeatable housing system that can be designed, specified, inspected and warranted.
From funded R&D to full-scale deployment
Government-backed R&D is reducing the technical risk.
The next capital takes the programme into construction-scale machinery, material handling, controls, commissioning and first live housing deployments.
The capital requirement will be set from the machine specification, deployment model and first-project pipeline rather than a round-number fundraising target.
The next capital is not being raised to prove that concrete can be printed.
It is being raised to turn the programme into a construction-scale production capability: full-scale machinery, material handling, controls, commissioning and first live deployment.
Investment will take the programme through construction-scale machinery, controls integration, commissioning, first live deployment and the evidence required to repeat it.
Capital will be deployed against defined technical and commercial gates rather than treating the first machine as one enormous experimental bet.
Full-scale printing system
Design, manufacture or acquire the construction-scale gantry, print system and associated material-handling equipment.
Controls and commissioning
Integrate machine control, sensing, calibration and production workflows.
First live deployment
Take the system onto a controlled housing project with a named client and defined assurance pathway.
Deployment evidence
Capture cost, programme, productivity, material, machine and quality evidence from the first build.
The full deployment capital requirement will be developed from the machine specification, commissioning strategy and requirements of the first live project.
No invented £10 million headline. We specify the system, price the deployment, then raise against a defined plan.
From funded R&D to repeatable housing delivery
The commercial pathway is deliberately simple.
- 01
Funded feasibility
Architecture, structures, StrataCore materials, sensing, commercial modelling and machine development.
- 02
Construction-scale system
Build and commission the machine, controls and material-handling system.
- 03
First live scheme
Deploy against real planning, commercial, programme and assurance requirements.
- 04
Measured performance
Capture the actual cost, productivity, quality and programme delta against conventional construction.
- 05
Repeatable delivery model
Turn the resulting methods, controls, materials, QA and project knowledge into a priceable construction system.
- 06
Scale
Deploy the proven system across more projects, partners and locations without reinventing the delivery model each time. Scale is not a bigger printer. It is repeatability: the same material system, controls, evidence chain, delivery methodology and commercial model applied again and again.
The objective is not to print one house.
It is to build a system capable of delivering thousands.
Work with the programme
Three ways in. One network around the programme.
Bring a housing schemeWe progress the development conventionally and assess whether a house type, plot or phase provides a viable 3DP application.Review a live housing schemeJoin the NetworkBring specialist capability, materials, machinery, manufacturing, sensing, research or a route to deployment.Join the NetworkBack the first full-scale deploymentProvide the capital that converts government-backed feasibility into construction-scale machinery and first live housing projects.Request the investor brief