structural performance
Quantifying the influence of continuous and discrete design decisions using sensitivities — Early-stage design decisions have a large impact on the performance of buildings. Especially the case of mixed (continuous and discrete) design variables can complicate human and computer understandings of how individual choices contribute to performance,
The Chair Laboratory: A case study on structural reuse — “As consumers, we practice reuse in everyday life, often as a means of wasting less. When it comes to buildings, the environmental and economic stakes are much higher, and yet reuse is rare at the
Strategies to reduce embodied carbon in early-stage structural design — While many strategies have been identified and proposed for reducing embodied carbon in early-stage structural design, they are rarely synthesized to discuss their relative effectiveness and compatibility. Discussing the strategies together rather than individually is
Flow-informed topology design — An alternate geometric method to facilitate designing with “force flow”. Principles and precedents in efficient structural design demonstrate the advantage of designing topologies that align well with an underlying vector field, such as principal stress
Mechanical behavior of timber joinery — Conventional connections for timber structural systems typically use metallic fasteners rather than all-timber interlocking joinery connections as seen in historic timber construction. What is the potential to re-apply joinery to modern timber construction, given modern
Pluma — With a design framework applicable to any site in the world, the Pluma installation envisions a lightweight future where structures generate more energy than they embody. Earned honorable mention at the IASS 2020 Design Competition.
Timber-concrete composite floor systems — Vibration analysis models for the timber-concrete composite floor system. More information on the system available at here and at the SOM Timber Tower Research Project. Image by SOM.
Structural systems for the Charenton-Bercy tower — Early-stage evaluation of several options for structural systems for a skyscraper. Effects on material weight and embodied carbon were studied. More information available at SOM. Image by SOM.
Mass Timber Longhouse — The Longhouse was developed by a cross-disciplinary team in Mass Timber Design, a design workshop in MIT Architecture that explores the future of sustainable buildings at the intersection of architecture and technology. Structural feedback was
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Masonry stability — Discrete element modeling (DEM) is a numerical analysis method only recently applied to assessing the stability of masonry structures, where each masonry element is represented by a discrete element. How do DEM results compare to
