Main Goal
To understand the existing levers to decrease the environmental footprint of structures without relying on hypothetical or unattainable technological breakthroughs — and to explore the growing role of industrialisation, material mixity, and design for assembly and disassembly in current practice.
Main Skills Acquired
- Understand the value chain of building structures, from design to construction, and identify current sources of inefficiency from all actors’ perspectives
- Use AI-based decision-making tools to design building structures against multiple criteria
- Understand the challenges and potential of industrialisation: digital manufacturing, quality control, and environmental impact transfers
- Apply design for adaptability, assembly and disassembly in practice, and their influence on material efficiency
- Identify potential for material mixity in load-bearing systems, and its challenges for practical implementation and reuse
- Apply LCA in the practical context of structural design
Main Topics
- Environmental footprint of building structures
- Structural efficiency & mechanical necessity
- Structural value chain & hidden levers
- Low-impact structural materials & material choices
- Material mixity in load-bearing systems
- Industrialisation & digital manufacturing
- Design for adaptability, assembly & disassembly
- AI-assisted structural design & multi-criteria decision-making
- Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for structural design
