📢 The first ever Ovenbird workshop will be held on Nov 16-17 2025 in Boston as part of the Advances in Architectural Geometry conference!

About Ovenbird

Ovenbird is the product of the 3D concrete printing research and the gradient multi-material extrusion research at the Polyhedral Structures Laboratory (PSL), which is part of the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania.

The plug-in is named after the red ovenbird (Furnarius rufus, also known as the rufous hornero), a South American bird that builds its shell nests by gradually depositing mud, a process similar to 3D concrete printing. We share the ovenbird's vision of printing our own houses.

Team

Yefan Zhi Developer

Hua Chai Tester

Teng Teng Developer of multi-material hardware and firmware
Tester

Masoud Akbarzadeh Principal Investigator

Publications

You can cite articles based on the Ovenbird functions used.

Y. Zhi, H. Chai, T. Teng, and M. Akbarzadeh, “Automated toolpath design of 3D concrete printing structural components,” Additive Manufacturing, p. 104662, 2025. (1) (Framework of Ovenbird, slicing, buildability analysis, continuous printing, visualization)

@article{Zhi-2025-Continuous-Path,
    title = {Automated toolpath design of 3D concrete printing structural components},
    journal = {Additive Manufacturing},
    pages = {104662},
    year = {2025},
    issn = {2214-8604},
    doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2025.104662},
    url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214860425000260},
    author = {Yefan Zhi and Hua Chai and Teng Teng and Masoud Akbarzadeh},
    keywords = {3D concrete printing, Design automation, Porous structure, Buildability, Path planning, Continuous toolpath, Surface reconstruction}
}

Y. Zhi, T. Teng, and M. Akbarzadeh, “Designing 3D-printed concrete structures with scaled fabrication models,” Architectural Intelligence, vol. 3, no. 1, 2024. (1) (Scaled fabrication models)

@article{Zhi2024,
    title = {Designing 3D-printed concrete structures with scaled fabrication models},
    volume = {3},
    ISSN = {2731-6726},
    url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s44223-024-00070-3},
    DOI = {10.1007/s44223-024-00070-3},
    number = {1},
    journal = {Architectural Intelligence},
    publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},
    author = {Zhi, Yefan and Teng, Teng and Akbarzadeh, Masoud},
    year = {2024},
    month = aug
}

Y. Zhi, H. Chai, T. Teng, and M. Akbarzadeh, “Local optimization of self-supporting shell structures in 3D printing: a skeleton method,” in Proceedings of IASS 2023 symposium Integration of Design and Fabrication, Melbourne, Australia, Jul. 2023. (1) (Toolpath data structures, definition of the overhang)

@inproceedings{Zhi-2023-Overhang,
    title = {Local optimization of self-supporting shell structures in 3D printing: a skeleton method},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of IASS 2023 symposium Integration of Design and Fabrication},
    author = {Zhi, Yefan and Chai, Hua and Teng, Teng and Akbarzadeh, Masoud},
    year = {2023},
    month = {July 10-14},
    address = {Melbourne, Australia}
}

T. Teng, Y. Zhi, and M. Akbarzadeh, “Prototyping high-fidelity multifunctional objects using single-nozzle multi-filament additive manufacturing system with active mixing,” Materials & Design, vol. 249, 2025. (1) (Multi-material printing)

@article{Teng-2025-Multi-Material-3DP,
    title = {Prototyping high-fidelity multifunctional objects using single-nozzle multi-filament additive manufacturing system with active mixing},
    volume = {249},
    page = {113479},
    publisher = {Elsevier BV},
    url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2024.113479},
    doi = {10.1016/j.matdes.2024.113479},
    journal = {Materials \& Design},
    year = {2025},
    month = {1},
    author = {Teng Teng and Yefan Zhi and Masoud Akbarzadeh},
    ENTRYTYPE = {article},
    ID = {Teng-2025-Multi-Material-3DP}
}

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) Grant of U.S. Department of Energy (DE-AR0001631), the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (NSF CAREER-1944691 CMMI), and the National Science Foundation Future Eco Manufacturing Research Grant (NSF FMRG-CMMI 2037097) awarded to Masoud Akbarzadeh.

The authors also thank Yao Lu for the help in Grasshopper plug-in development.

A product of

Supported by

Contact

Contact Yefan Zhi via yefanzhi@gmail.com if you have any questions, bugs, etc. We are always willing to help.