The IASS Executive Council has approved the creation of a new working group, WG 22, on Architectural Geometry. Its mission is to spread knowledge on architectural geometry in the structural engineering community and to enrich the architectural geometry domain with new scientific questions arising from engineering, architectural, and artistic practice.
Cyril DOUTHE, Chair of WG22, Université Gustave Eiffel, cyril.douthe@univ-eiffel.fr
Toby MITCHELL, Co-Chair of WG22, Thornton Tomasetti, ttmitchell@thorntontomasetti.com
Eike SCHLING, Co-Chair of WG22, Hong Kong University, schling@hku.hk
- CONTEXT
The turn of the twenty-first century has seen the development of NURBS modelling and its spread through the IASS community. In practice, the keen interest in free-form architecture created new challenges of increasing fabrication complexity. Because of these difficulties, the applied mathematics community has developed new concepts that draw on analogies between continuum and discrete theories to design and optimize curved building structures considering specific fabrication constraints. This gave rise to a new research field called “architectural geometry”.
This geometrical knowledge is key to creating innovative solutions for construction-aware design, and thus elevating shell and spatial structures beyond the extravagant to make them mechanically and economically efficient for broader applications in architecture. The IASS’s wealth of shell and spatial structure knowledge and experience positions us well to bring insight based in structural concepts to this important field of architectural geometry.
- ACTIVITIES
The first step of the new working group is to gather the members wanting to participate in the activities and evaluate the working forces that might be involved in these activities. So please feel free to contact one of the WG chairs.
The working group should be a place for reflection and sharing knowledge on geometry, its theory and computational approach in our design practice. This may be in the rationalization process of capricious forms, in the definition of design spaces that are simultaneously structurally efficient and adhere to architectural or fabrication constraints, or to deepen our understanding of shell behaviour.
The WG 22 will meet regularly and organize mini-symposia and two-day workshops during the IASS annual conferences to present new contributions and structure the community.
A special issue of the IASS journal focusing on Architectural Geometry is planned soon to assemble a state-of-the-art of IASS members’ contribution to the field and its development perspectives.
In the next five years, the WG will collectively edit an interactive publication on Architectural Geometry incorporating built examples and offering an up-to-date “design guide” to complex structures. This publication will be a progression of existing literature on Architectural Geometry but tailored to structural designers.
Eike Schling 