Parametric Design and Structural Optimisation for Early Design Exploration

The investigation presented in this paper focuses on the following questions: How can engineering and architectural expertise, assisted by a process of digital optimisation, promote structural awareness regarding design alterations in the conceptual design stages? Can building geometry be set up computationally to render it sensitive to structural input? Which software tools are required to foster this interaction and what kind of decision support is needed to allow both architects and structural engineers to interact concurrently in this optimisation process? The authors of this paper form a team of researchers and practitioners from architectural and structural engineering background who combine their efforts to address the issue of interconnecting design intelligence across disciplines and advancing revised work methodologies in practice assisted by academic research. The research has shown that an integrated transfer of design information between architectural and structural designers in the early stages is beneficial to the collaboration if experts from both professions agree on common goals and define suitability rules that guide optimisation processes from the very beginning. To enable this, software tools are required that provide ad hoc decision support to create a wider array of informed design alternatives from which to choose.