advanced building skins 14 | 15 June 2012 - lamp.tugraz.at - Graz ...

Prof. Dr.nat.techn. Oliver Englhardt
Institute of Building Construction
Graz University of Technology
Copyright © with the authors. All rights reserved.
Summary
Construction Aware Design Thinking
Rene Ziegler, Dr.
Benjamin Schneider
Udo Ribbe, Dipl.-Ing.
Waagner-Biro Stahlbau AG, Vienna, Austria, www.waagner-biro.at
The rationalization of a mathematically described digital form into a discrete model and its further
development towards a built structure assembled out of numerous components with materialimmanent
characteristics, confronts both architects and engineers and mathematicians and building
firms with new challenges.
A close interdisciplinary collaboration, an exact understanding between the project involved
parties and a consistent parametric data model are therefore the key to optimization potential and a
successful project. It is necessary to constantly adapt the methods of design development to the
upcoming challenges.
Keywords: Complex geometry, steel structures, digital design, design thinking
1 Introduction
For the past century, architects have been using cylinders, cones, rotational and ruled surfaces for their
designs. Meanwhile digital design tools enable architects to use a very rich amount of different forms
and computers and software are necessary for throughout the architectural design and planning of the
construction industry. Whether it is the design or the draft of drawings of new complex building
shapes, working with digital content has become the standard for the industry. There is a continuous
tendency to give up linear forms with easily manageable numbers of the same elements. Free-form
structures originated by the creativity of architects beginning in the last decade of the previous
millennium have developed to symbols of elegance, grace, progress, and innovation. The construction
of arbitrarily shaped building envelopes necessitates the computerized design and calculation of large
number of unique elements. To transfer the architectural concept into built reality, an intense
collaboration of geometrical and structural engineers combined with production and material
management experience is necessary to standardize complexity and hence increase the feasibility of
the design (Figure 1).
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