The achievement of CO2 neutral construction constitutes the most important challenge for the building industry in the 21st century. Speed, durability and resource efficiency are of increasing importance in meeting the challenges of global population growth. At the same time, contemporary advances in digital design and computational analysis technologies support nonlinear iterative design processes in the conceptualization and development of new innovative structures and materials towards a minimization of energy consumption and fossil resources, as well as sustainable solutions by means of ecological footprint and resource optimisation. Viewed as a response to climate change, the urgency of reducing the environmental impact of buildings is steadily increasing, and there is a general shift towards a greater awareness of the need to reduce the ecological carbon footprint of the building sector. In this framework, transformable structures in architecture and civil engineering offer a promising solution to massive building structures and fixed-shape components realized in a particular context and time.
In the creation of a sustainable built environment, aspects of flexibility, structural efficiency and modularity gain significance, further enabling transformability of the buildings, components and materials at different levels. Transformable structures applied at building, envelope, components and material level may have reconfigurable, deployable, adaptive and intelligent attributes. They are capable to transform into differing shapes in response to varying functional, environmental or loading conditions. From a functional perspective, shape transformations contribute towards better space utilization; from an environmental perspective, optimal comfort levels for the occupants and renewable energy collection become possible. Shape variability enables minimisation of external loading and structural performance optimisation through adaptation. Furthermore, transformability is relevant to the arts of motion and aesthetics, reflecting modern technological and cultural advances derived from scientific and engineering contexts. Different typologies and related mechanisms have been developed in recent years for architectural and other engineering applications, such as tensegrity, scissor-like, origami inspired, and rigid-bar linkages. Such developments are often assessed based on their constructability and maintenance, modularity and assembly, fabrication and construction design, material properties, kinematics, control components design and integration, structural performance, environmental performance, as well as energy performance during actuation.
Papers focusing on state-of-the-art research and applications of transformable structures in architecture and civil engineering are relevant to this research area. Topics such as the following are of particular interest:
• Assembly, erection and deployment methods;
• Constructability and maintenance issues;
• Fabrication, construction detailing and joint design;
• Innovative structures and materials;
• Integration of Life Cycle Assessment;
• Building envelope analysis;
• Structural modelling and analysis;
• Structural kinematics and simulation methods;
• Material properties and kinematics;
• Control components design and actuation integration;
• Structural performance evaluation;
• Real world applications in buildings and construction.
The achievement of CO2 neutral construction constitutes the most important challenge for the building industry in the 21st century. Speed, durability and resource efficiency are of increasing importance in meeting the challenges of global population growth. At the same time, contemporary advances in digital design and computational analysis technologies support nonlinear iterative design processes in the conceptualization and development of new innovative structures and materials towards a minimization of energy consumption and fossil resources, as well as sustainable solutions by means of ecological footprint and resource optimisation. Viewed as a response to climate change, the urgency of reducing the environmental impact of buildings is steadily increasing, and there is a general shift towards a greater awareness of the need to reduce the ecological carbon footprint of the building sector. In this framework, transformable structures in architecture and civil engineering offer a promising solution to massive building structures and fixed-shape components realized in a particular context and time.
In the creation of a sustainable built environment, aspects of flexibility, structural efficiency and modularity gain significance, further enabling transformability of the buildings, components and materials at different levels. Transformable structures applied at building, envelope, components and material level may have reconfigurable, deployable, adaptive and intelligent attributes. They are capable to transform into differing shapes in response to varying functional, environmental or loading conditions. From a functional perspective, shape transformations contribute towards better space utilization; from an environmental perspective, optimal comfort levels for the occupants and renewable energy collection become possible. Shape variability enables minimisation of external loading and structural performance optimisation through adaptation. Furthermore, transformability is relevant to the arts of motion and aesthetics, reflecting modern technological and cultural advances derived from scientific and engineering contexts. Different typologies and related mechanisms have been developed in recent years for architectural and other engineering applications, such as tensegrity, scissor-like, origami inspired, and rigid-bar linkages. Such developments are often assessed based on their constructability and maintenance, modularity and assembly, fabrication and construction design, material properties, kinematics, control components design and integration, structural performance, environmental performance, as well as energy performance during actuation.
Papers focusing on state-of-the-art research and applications of transformable structures in architecture and civil engineering are relevant to this research area. Topics such as the following are of particular interest:
• Assembly, erection and deployment methods;
• Constructability and maintenance issues;
• Fabrication, construction detailing and joint design;
• Innovative structures and materials;
• Integration of Life Cycle Assessment;
• Building envelope analysis;
• Structural modelling and analysis;
• Structural kinematics and simulation methods;
• Material properties and kinematics;
• Control components design and actuation integration;
• Structural performance evaluation;
• Real world applications in buildings and construction.
