Chinese designer brings algorithms, 3D printing into concrete

Chinese architect and designer Evan Tsai (Chengzhi Cai) has a grand vision: Giving ancient concrete a new digital life.

In conventional architectural practice, concrete has long been associated with weight, permanence, and irreversibility. It is a material shaped through molds, with its final form determined before construction even begins. Yet in the work of Cai, concrete is no longer a passive substance waiting to be formed.

Instead, it becomes an active design medium — one that can be generated through algorithms, fabricated by machines, and reconfigured according to different spatial contexts.

As founder of Studio Alpha and SA-math, Cai has extensive experience across architecture, design, and entrepreneurship, seeing the true potential of technology — Algorithms establish systems of form generation; digital modeling creates a bridge between design intent and fabrication; and 3D printing frees complex structures from the constraints of traditional molds.

In Cai's new workflow, the architect's role shifts — from drawing predetermined shapes to coordinating materials, machines, structural logic, environments, and human needs.

And this approach is embodied in Cai's signature project amorphous.CONCRETE. The project — at the heart of which lies a "differential growth" algorithm — employs generative algorithms and large-scale concrete 3D printing to produce customized, structurally enhanced concrete modules. These units can then be assembled into adaptable furniture, landscape installations, and architectural components.

Team leaders Cai and Rongsheng Chen said with Tianci Liang, Ruizhe Luo, Kuangzhi Zhang serving as designers, amorphous. CONCRETE has moved beyond experimental research and entered real-world environments, including an outdoor landscape sculpture installed at Shanghai Xinyangwan Science and Technology Park. The project, manufactured by Xiamen Zhichuangchi Technology Co Ltd, has received recognition, including the Red Dot Award and Gold Winner at the London Design Awards.

If amorphous.CONCRETE explores how forms can "grow", then Concrete Reverie — created by Cai, Chen, scholars from East China Jiaotong University, Curtin University, Western Sydney University and Royal College of Art and others — further investigates how digital imagery can acquire physical weight, scale, and structural presence.

One of the key breakthroughs of Concrete Reverie lies in its exploration of non-planar slicing and dynamic Z-axis printing. Each component is precisely prefabricated for easy assembly, transportation, and reconfiguration.

Concrete Reverie received the Platinum Award at the London Design Awards and was presented at the Interior Design Show Vancouver.

Another installation, Borrowed Object — with Cai and Richard Go as leading designers, He Chenming and others as designers — demonstrates a different approach to bringing digital technologies into spatial design.

Created by the SA-math under Cai's direction, the project was completed within only 10 days for Shanghai K11 Q Club.

Starting from illustrations by Portuguese artist Vanessa Teodoro, the team applied computer vision algorithms to analyze, transform, and reorganize the original imagery. The two-dimensional artwork was then translated into a layered, algorithmically generated wall installation. Combined with LED lighting, the layered structures create overlapping shadows and shifting visual depth, allowing the wall surface to constantly transform.

The title "Borrowed Object" reflects multiple layers of meaning: borrowing the artist's imagery to begin a new creative process; borrowing algorithms to reconstruct visual order; borrowing light to shape spatial depth; and borrowing the existing architectural environment to complete the work's final interpretation.

Across Cai's body of work, a clear ambition emerges: to challenge the conventional perception of concrete as a heavy, rigid, and permanent material. He insists on bringing computational design into actual public environments, commercial spaces, and outdoor landscapes.

For him, technology ultimately exists in service of spatial experience, while machine fabrication serves human perception and emotion.

Through this continuous exploration, Cai is not simply redesigning concrete — he is redefining the relationship between material, technology, and architecture, allowing one of humanity's oldest construction materials to discover a new form of vitality in the digital age.