The document discusses the emergence of new geometries and structural approaches in architecture since the late 1980s. Digital technologies and new materials have enabled complex, freeform building shapes that cannot be achieved with traditional structural systems. Some key points discussed include: - Structural engineers are exploring biomorphic and fluid geometries inspired by nature, using computational modeling to realize architects' complex designs. - The organizing geometry is often irregular compared to typical buildings, with layouts that are random and dynamic. - Deconstructivist architecture from the late 1980s celebrated visual disorder and manipulated ideas of structure, influenced by theories of fragmentation and chaos. - Recent projects demonstrate the engineering challenges of freeform designs and new approaches like hybrid

1. T H E NEW GEOMETRY
Prof. Wolfgang Schueller

2. A new language of structures has been developing with
respect to architecture. It may be characterized by the
breakdown of the building into smaller assemblies,
multilayered construction, complex shapes and spatial
geometries, fractured forms (i.e., fractal mathematics),
hinged assemblies, forms in tension and compression
(i.e., buildings have muscles), mixed and hybrid
structures, cast metals, light-weight composite
materials, and so on.
There is even an indication that certain passive
structures may be replaced eventually by active
structures with their own intelligence. We are already
quite familiar with smart materials and energy.

3. Since the late 1980s , the field of architecture has witnessed
revolutionary changes in design. Innovations in
construction and project design made possible by digital
technologies together with the development of new
composite materials have enabled architects to create
buildings with the most unusual and provocative shapes.
Especially, Frank O. Gehry's projects brought attention to
complex-shaped, unconventional design. The structures for
these complicated designs can obviously not covered by
traditional structure systems
The organizing geometry of the new aesthetics, however,
often is not regular anymore as for typical buildings. It may
be random and dynamic as demonstrated, for example, by
the Beijing National Stadium and the Beijing National
Swimming Center. It is possible now with modelling
software that designers can explore forms and situations
that they may have not been able to conceive before.
Freeform shapes in architecture have become a great
engineering challenge.

4. Complex designs are those that cannot be described in basic geometric terms, they could
be a result of experimental design processes or simply an architectural design concept. In
either case, the design team has to be innovative and inventive in order to extract and design
a building strategy to engineer the architectural object.
Complexity can be a structural solution in itself; a pure, efficient structure is usually a
complex shaped one. Catenaries are pure structural forms but they are expensive to build
due to their complex geometries; beams are simple and cheap but are not an efficient form.
Simulation, optimization and modeling provide ways of identifying a solution that meets these
multiple demands.
• Free-form designs are shaped by the architect without referring to material and structural
behaviors.
• Form-found designs are evolving structures, created through a dependency on physical
forces, the constraints of materials and the effect of spatial boundary conditions.
Free forms, with the large and complicated structures necessary to keep them aloft, can be
realized at a high price. As complicated building systems are employed, maintenance,
access and installation become difficult and yet another expensive undertaking.
Form-found structures are more efficient, as competing principles are assimilated and
optimized throughout the design process – by employing a parametric computational
environment, there is an inherent flexibility allowing different design options to be explored.
The use of parametric tools has become important, allowing us to explore multiple design
alternatives in an interactive environment; this permits us to evaluate and compare different
design solutions and to choose the most efficient one that pleases all parties and fits within
the budget.

5. In free-form designs the complex hidden structure derived from intricate geometries
and not from the nature of the support structure as convincingly demonstrated, for
example, in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, by Frank Gehry (1997), and by
some of the work of Daniel Libeskind. For typical complex buildings, computers find the
layout of structures within given boundaries.
In form-found designs the structure as the primary idea of architecture, but not
necessarily derived from traditional engineering thinking of optimization or standard
construction techniques or tectonic expression, but from other intentions; architects invent
structures: subjectivity and creativity are introduced in spite of the limits imposed by the
rules and physical laws of engineering. In other words, the designer decides to expose the
structure, rather than hide it behind a skin, in order to articulate its purpose and thereby
enhances the quality of space such as articulating the illusion of weightlessness.
The dialogue (or play) of architecture with structure, or symbolism with tectonics: e.g.
the illusion of support structure, or the detail on a more local scale as a leitmotif.
The organizing geometry of the new aesthetics often may appear as not regular as for
typical buildings; the layout of structure may be random and fluid. It is possible now
with modeling software that designers can explore forms and situations that they may
have not been able to conceive before. Freeform shapes in architecture have become a
great engineering challenge. The renowned structural engineer Cecil Balmond argues
that structural engineers must become more intuitive and not just work towards the known;
in other words, they must develop a less skeletal but more fluid understanding of
structure. He points to the emergence of a new aesthetics of asymmetrical structures that
oppose traditional notions of tectonic structures and stability. Structures derive from an
animated sense of geometry possibly based on natural forms that are constantly changing
where geometry evolves out of modeling and testing.

6. THE PRESENTATION OF THE NEW GEOMETRY OF
IRREGULAR BUILDINGS IS AS FOLLOWS:
• CHAOTIC ARRANGMENT OF LINEAR AND SURFACE ELEMENTS
• CHAOTIC ARRANGMENT OF SPATIAL, POLYHEDRAL ELEMENTS
• IRREGULAR, FLUID, HORIZONTAL- SPAN STRUCTURES
• BEAM BUILDINGS
• COMPLEX WALL GEOMETRIES
• IRREGULAR, VERTICAL BUILDINGS
• COMPLEX GEOMETRY: structure as the primary idea of architecture

7. Deconstructive philosophy in architectural theory (see Jacque Derrida’s
influence on Peter Eisenman and Daniel Libeskind) had a great influence on
the development of the new geometry in postmodern architecture that
began in the late 1980s. It is characterized by ideas of fragmentation, an
interest in manipulating ideas of a structure's surface or skin, non-rectlinear
shapes which serve to distort and dislocate some of the elements of
architecture, such as structure and envelope. The finished visual
appearance of buildings that exhibit the many deconstructivist styles is
characterized by a stimulating unpredictability and a controlled chaos.
The deconstructive architecture celebrates order in visual disorder in
response to corruption, violence, and irrationality in life. It lets architectural
form wildly spin out of control to violate perfection and cause torture and
pain in reaction to the traditional values of architecture. It has its source in
philosophical skepticism and chaos theory in science, which is based on
the randomness and uncertainty that occur in catastrophes, failures,
instabilities, accidental impacts, turbulences, and so on, in contrast to the
linear models and predictability of the deterministic world.

8. CHAOTIC ARRANGMENT OF
LINEAR AND SURFACE ELEMENTS

9. Daniel Libeskind

10. Jewish Museum, Berlin, 2000, Daniel Libeskind

12. Felix Nussbaum-Haus,
Osnabrueck, 1998, Daniel
Liebeskind

14. Vitra Museum, Weil am Rhein,
Germany, 1989, Frank O. Gehry:
complex building bodies and irrational
arrangement of shapes together with
distorted geometry and construction
cause an exciting space interaction.

15. Frank O. Gehry found inspiration in an
Arizona canyon, left, for the interior
spaces of the offices and classroom
tower, left, of the Peter B. Lewis
Building, nearing completion on the
campus of Case Western Reserve
University. The design of the exterior
began, as most Gehry buildings do, with
highly conceptual sketches drawn by the
architect, above.

16. VITRA FIRE STATION, 1994,
WEIL am RHEIN, GERMANY,
Zaha Hadid

18. Follies, Parc de la Villette, Paris,
1986, Bernard Tschumi

19. Bus Stop, Aachen, Germany, 1998, Peter Eisenman

28. The organizing geometry of the new aesthetics often is not regular as for typical
buildings; the layout of structure may be random and fluid. It is possible now
with modeling software that designers can explore forms and situations that they
may have not been able to conceive before. Freeform shapes in architecture have
become a great engineering challenge. The renowned structural engineer Cecil
Balmond argues that structural engineers must become more intuitive and not just
work towards the known; in other words, they must develop a less skeletal but
more fluid understanding of structure. He points to the emergence of a new
aesthetics of asymmetrical structures that oppose traditional notions of tectonic
structures and stability. Structures derive from an animated sense of geometry
possibly based on natural forms that are constantly changing where geometry
evolves out of modeling and testing.
■ e.g. the sculptural structure as derived from other design ideas, such
as the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany (2005), by Zaha Hadid.
■ e.g. the irregular and random type structure such as the “Water Cube” and
"Bird’s Nest” in Beijing (2008). The structural engineer Mutsuro Sasaki of Japan
conducts experiments on refining the mathematical principles that allow buildings
to escape rigid geometric forms and take on more biomorphic shapes. He helped
to transform the complex geometries and ideas of architects like Toyo Ito and
Arata Isozaki into reality.

29. For example, the structural engineer Mutsuro Sasaki of Japan conducts
experiments on refining the mathematical principles that allow buildings to escape
rigid geometric forms and take on more biomorphic shapes. He helped to
transform the complex geometries and ideas of architects like Toyo Ito and Arata
Isozaki into reality. Similarly, the renowned structural engineer Cecil Balmond of
Arup argues that structural engineers must become more intuitive and not just
work towards the known; in other words, they must develop a less skeletal but
more fluid understanding of structure. He points to the emergence of a new
aesthetics of asymmetrical structures that oppose traditional notions of tectonic
structures and stability. Structures derive from an animated sense of geometry
possibly based on natural forms that are constantly changing that is geometry
evolves out of modeling and testing.
The organizing geometry of the new aesthetics, however, often is not regular
anymore as for typical buildings. It may be random and dynamic as demonstrated,
for example, by the Beijing National Stadium (Fig.10.12) and the Beijing National
Swimming Center (Fig. 10.13). It is possible now with modeling software that
designers can explore forms and situations that they may have not been able to
conceive before. Freeform shapes in architecture have become a great
engineering challenge.

30. Cecil Balmond - Informal Networks -3
November 2005
Entitled Informal Networks, the talk detailed the Unit’s research, including work
hot off the computer, into new structural forms, forms that could be a catalyst for
new building typologies, ones that allowed for notions of ‘trace’, ‘skip’, ‘jump’ and
‘overlap’. Structures that are based on an animated sense of geometry, open-
ended, scale less, based on Natural forms but understanding that Nature is not
fixed or static but constantly changing. If architects are to apply the fruits of this
research, Balmond argued, they need to change their way of thinking, to become
more intuitive, not to work towards known outcomes. Beauty in Architecture, he
suggested, lay in the process of construction, not with the finished object.

31. Mr. Balmond and the Japanese architect Toyo Ito played with a pattern of
overlapping squares across a delicate lacelike skin for the Serpentine Gallery
Pavilion in London (2002). It was not only decorative but also supported the entire
structure.
Freeform shapes in architecture is an area of great engineering challenges
and novel design ideas. Obviously the design process, which
involves shape, feasible segmentation into discrete parts, functionality,
materials, statics, and cost, at every stage benefits from a complete
knowledge of the complex interrelations between geometry
requirements and available degrees of freedom. Triangle meshes
– the most basic, convenient, and structurally stable way of representing
a smooth shape in a discrete way – do not support desirable
properties of meshes relevant to building construction (most importantly,
“torsion-free” nodes). Alternatives, namely quad-dominant
BMW’s undulating steel forms, suggesting the magical qualities of liquid mercury,
may be the closest yet that architecture has come to alchemy.”
An hourglass-shaped events hall grounds the building at one end, its torqued glass-
and-steel form evoking a tornado drilling into the earth,
Behind SANAA’s illusion of weightlessness Mutsuro Sasaki ,for a competition
proposal for a new train station in Florence with the architect Arata Isozaki, Sasaki
generated a structure using compute methods rooted in evolutionary biology

32. Although architects and their works ARE sometimes featured on these art pages, strictly
speaking, Mutsuro Sasaki, a structural engineer, shouldn’t be here at all. Yet thanks to the
talents of Sasaki and his colleagues, who know how to make architects’ fantasies come true,
new possibilities for structural design are taking flight, contributing to exciting environments
for the new millennium.
Currently a professor at Hosei University (and before that Nagoya University), Sasaki
conducts experiments into new structural possibilities for architecture. In particular, his
research concentrates on refining the mathematical principles that allow buildings to escape
rigid geometric forms and take on more biomorphic shapes.
Anyone familiar with the work of Antonio Gaudi will be familiar with Sasaki’s interests, but
where the Spanish architect’s approach was by necessity trial-and-error, Sasaki can, thanks
to computer technology, talk of having a “modern theoretical method” to work
Outside of the university’s research labs, Sasaki has helped transform the ideas of top
Japanese architects like Toyo Ito and Arata Isozaki into reality. A good example can be seen
in Gallery Ma’s garden, where stands a replica of a typical flux structure: the gateway to a
convention hall in Qatar, the construction of which began in 2004 but has since been
suspended. The basic design works on contrasts between the long, flat horizontal beam and
the rounded tree trunk-like legs. The resemblance of these pillars to organic forms is no
coincidence; Sasaki and the architect, Arata Isozaki, were inspired by the way that certain
plants adapt to their environment, and they decided to apply these principles to architecture.

33. However, Tristram Carfrae now perceives a swing back towards the structural
engineer, through the potential in advancing and extending building
information modeling (BIM) and allied techniques, as part of the collaborative
design process.
Carfrae describes how, historically, structural engineers were essentially
trained to be numerate; that it was a form of applied mathematics above all.
With previous tools, engineers were licensed to use them only when they've
demonstrated an understanding their innards in detail. With the increased
complexity of today's tools, that's generally not possible and certainly not
scalable. Equally, using contemporary modeling software, engineers can
explore situations that they may not have been able to conceive - put simply,
situations and processes that can't be drawn.
By constantly looking at these judgments on process from different
perspectives, informed through collaboration, you should end up with an outcome
that is richly imaginative and holistic, yet grounded in testing and modeling.

34. Volker Schmid forscht zu dem Thema der hybriden Bauweise. Sie ermöglicht den Ingenieuren und
Architekten eine neue Formensprache
Sei es das Paul-Klee-Zentrum in Bern des Architekten Renzo Piano, das schottische Parlament in Edinburgh
von Henrique Mirailles oder das Haus für Musik und Musiktheater in Graz - bei all diesen anspruchsvollen
Projekten leitete Volker Schmid die Planung der Tragwerke. Und auch bei den überdimensionalen
Fußballschuhen, aufgestellt zwischen Kanzleramt und Berliner Hauptbahnhof zur Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft
2006, hatte Volker Schmid die Hände im Spiel.
So unterschiedlich diese Bauwerke und Skulpturen sein mögen, ihnen ist gemeinsam, dass es sogenannte
Hybridkonstruktionen sind, Konstruktio-nen, bei denen unterschiedliche Materialien miteinander
verbunden werden. Beim Paul-Klee-Zentrum zum Beispiel, einem Museumsneubau, wurden wellenförmige
Stahlträger auf raffinierte Weise mit Glas und Holz kombiniert. Bei den Fußballschuhen wurde nach dem
Sandwichprinzip ein Schaumstoffkern mit Deckschichten aus glasfaserverstärktem Kunststoff verbunden.
"Jedes Material hat besondere Eigenschaften und ist deshalb für bestimmte Aufgaben mehr oder weniger gut
geeignet", sagt Schmid, der als neuberufener Professor an der TU Berlin das Fachgebiet "Entwerfen und
Konstruieren - Verbundstrukturen" leitet und zuvor in London beim international renommierten Ingenieurbüro
"Arup" zu dem Thema der hybriden Bauweise forschte. Die Kombination von verschiedensten Materialien
ermöglicht es, so zu bauen, dass die Werkstoffe entsprechend ihren Eigenschaften optimal eingesetzt werden.
Bauten nur aus Stahl oder Beton gehören der Vergangenheit an.
"Die intelligente Kombination unterschiedlicher Werkstoffe zu hybriden Tragwerken führt zu neuen,
hocheffizienten Strukturen und einer neuen Formensprache", sagt Volker Schmid. Diese widerspiegelt
sich zum Bei-spiel an der Mensa der Universität in Karlsruhe. Hier wurde das Tragwerk aus Holz mit
Polyurethan bestrichen, einer gummiartigen wasserabweisenden Schicht, wie sie zur Abdichtung von
Betonbrücken verwendet wird. "Holz und Polyurethan sind so noch nie zusammen verwendet worden.
Es entstand im Holzbau eine völlig neue Form", sagt Schmid.

35. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, 1997, Frank Gehry

44. Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, 2003, Frank Gehry

48. Fisher Center, Bard College, NY, Frank Gehry, DeSimone, 2004

50. Museum Marta, Herford,
Germany, 2005, Frank Gehry

54. The renovated Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2008, Frank Gehry

58. The Hysolar Institute at the University of Stuttgart, Germany (1988, G. Behnish and Frank Stepper) reflects
the spirit of deconstruction, it looks like a picture puzzle of a building - it is a playful open style of building
with modern light materials. It reflects a play of irregular spaces like a collage using oblique angles causing
the structure to look for order. The building consists of two rows of prefabricated stacked metal containers
arranged in some haphazard twisted fashion, together with a structural framework enclosed with sun
collectors. The interior space is open at the ends and covered by a sloped roof structure. The bent linear
element gives the illusion of an arch with unimportant almost ugly anchorage to the ground.

61. Cental Station,
Oberhausen,
Germany, 1996,
C. Parade Arch,
Ralf
Woerzberger
Eng.

66. The M-House, Los Angeles, 2000, Michael Jantzen, Advanced Structures Inc.

70. UFA Palace, Dresden, Germany, 1999, COOP Himmelblau

75. Food Theater Cafe, London,
UK, 2001, Daniel Libeskind

77. CHAOTIC ARRANGMENT OF
SPATIAL, POLYHEDRAL ELEMENTS

78. allusion of instability for unusual structures
The structural design for Beijing's National Stadium was inspired by a bird's nest Unusual buildings and complex sculptures can
seem to defy gravity. Arup.com reports on the tricks of the trade that make this happen.
“What we want people to ask when they see an unusual building is, ‘how can that possibly stand up?’ “says Arup Sport’s Darren
Paine. His extensive experience of designing unusual structures ranges from glass sculptures to sports stadia.
Clever application of geometry and materials are the fundamental tricks behind creating an illusion of instability. Whether it’s a small
sculpture or a large-scale stadium, the same principles of space, light and materials is needed to create a false impression of
weightlessness. Darren says, ‘The only difference between a sculpture and a building is in the detail. With buildings you tend to
focus more on what’s on the inside, sculptures are more about what’s on the outside.’
Simple solutions
It’s not always the case that unusual form requires complicated facade for Munich’s (Germany) new World Cup football stadium will
be able to change colour when completed. This striking innovation requires a homogenous form and a facade clad in one material
type. But a seemingly uniform design may need a more complex response. The office building over Charing Cross Station (London,
UK) has a conventional outer form, but it needed a careful structural solution so that it could span several platforms.
It gets much more challenging when a building needs to look like a work of art and the technological solutions are difficult. Sports
stadia can present particular challenges. Unusual structure: interlocking planes on the Serpentine Pavilion 2002 Darren says,
‘When designing stadia, we’re taking creative, non-linear designs, such as those designed for the Serpentine Pavilion (a temporary
exhibition space in London, UK) and making them much bigger.‘ There are three generic solutions for roofs on stadia: a design
based around a cantilevered roof; a beam technique where the supporting element spans the full width of the stand; or a 3-
dimensional system where the material elements and geometry are used to span the full perimeter of the stadium.
Inspired by nature
Darren believes there is value in looking at art and nature for inspiration to complex design challenges.
He says, ‘We can learn a lot from natural solutions in a mixture of ways. In nature, everything exists on a small scale. It’s our job to
find out how we can translate these onto a larger structure.’ ‘Our experience puts us in a good position, and I’m confident that we’ll
continue to develop challenging designs in the future.’ Darren Paine, Arup Sport The architectural concept for Beijing National
Stadium was inspired by a bird’s nest. The venue for the 2008 Olympics - is as much about aesthetic detail on the outside as it is
about spectator comfort on the inside. Darren says, ‘We’ve really had to push the more conceptual ideas for this one. The actual
seating area is going to be very traditional, but to get there you have to pass through a very chaotic facade that, in engineering
terms, is much more challenging to create.’The structure is an interwoven series of beams giving an impression of weightlessness.
Careful material selection also plays a part in the illusion. Steel was the natural choice because of its load to weight capacity. Darren
says, ‘If you imagine overlapping lollypop sticks so that they interlock to form a star shape, then you get the idea for how we started
to think about the venue.’
Changing design
He believes that the way we will engineer unusual structures in the future is related to an increased acceptance of unconventional

79. Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada,
2007, Daniel Libeskind, Arup Struct. Eng.

87. Addition to Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA. 2006, Daniel Libeskind, Arup Eng.

99. Akron Art Museum, Akron, 2007, Wolf Prix and Helmut Swiczinsky (Himmelblau).

107. IRREGULAR, FLUID, HORIZONTAL-SPAN
STRUCTURES

108. DG Bank, Berlin, Germany
2001, Frank Gehry, Schlaich

109. Science and Technology Museum Shanghai, 2002, RTKL/Arup

111. Col. H. Weir Cook International Terminal, Indianapolis, 2008, Hellmuth, Obata +
Kassabaum (HOK), Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers

115. New Trade Fair, Rho-Pero, Milan, Italy, 2005, Massimiliano e Doriana Fuksas
Architects, Mero GmbH & Co. Schlaich Bergermann und Partner

125. Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion , 2008,
Zaha Hadid, Arup

128. C Quarters,
Doha, Qatar,
Chris Lee & Kapil
Gupta

130. Guangzhou Opera House, Guangzhou, Zaha Hadid

135. A model of the 2012 London Olympic
Aquatic Center, Zaha Hadid

138. Mobile Art Pavillion, Tokyo, 2008, Zaha Hadid, Arup

144. Mobile Art Pavillion, Hong Kong, 2008, Zaha Hadid

145. Inflatable structural skin,
various Norwegian Architects
designed a temporary
performance space for a world
tour, 2009, Ramboll Whitbybird
Struct. Eng., ESS/Tectoniks

152. Proposal Shenzhen
Museum of
Contemporary Art,
Shenzen, 2007,
EMERGENT Tom
Wiscombe, LCC

156. Shenzhen Museum of
Contemporary Art,
Shenzen, 2007, COOP
HImmelblau

157. Guangzhou Opera House, China,
2003-, Zaha Hadid Architects

161. Abu Dhabi called Masdar City, Dubai, Adrian Smith, 2008 project

163. BMW Welt, Munich, 2007, Coop Himmelblau

176. Congress Center EUR District, Rome,
Italy, 2008, Massimiliano Fuksa

179. the Giant Group New Pharmaceutical Campus, Shanghai, China, NY Times, 2020,
Thom Mayne (Morphosis)

180. BEAM BUILDINGS

181. Alan House, Los Angeles,
2007, Neil Denari (NMDA)

183. Porsche Museum, Stuttgart, Germany, 2009, Delugan Meissl

192. ING-House, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,
Meyer en van Schooten , Aronsohn
Raadgevende Ingenieurs

196. BMW Plant Leipzig, Central Building,
2004, Zaha Hadid

198. University of Cincinnati Rec Center, 2006, Thom Mayne (Morphosis)

199. Phaeno Science Center, Wolfsburg, Germany, 2005, Zaha Hadid

200. Phaeno Science Centre • Wolfsburg, Germany, 2005, Zaha Zadid

221. MAXXI museum, Rome, Italy, 2009, Zaha Hadid

223. Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre
project, Zaha Hadid

224. MAXXI museum, Rome, Italy, 2009, Zaha Hadid

227. Boston Convention Center, Boston, 2005, Vinoly and LeMessurier

229. University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Chicago, 2005, Rafael Vinoly, Thornton-Tomasetti

230. Seattle Central Library, 2005, Rem Koolhaas, Cecil Balmond

235. Casa da Música, Porto, Portugal
2005, Rem Koolhaas + Arup

237. Path Terminal, New York, 2009, Santiago Calatrava

241. Concert Hall , Tenerife, Spain, 2003, Santiago Calatrava,

242. The Milwaukee Art
Museum, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, 2001,
Santiago Calatrava

243. Lyon Airport, France, 1994, Santiago Calatrava

244. Palau de les Arts, Valencia Opera House, 2005, Santiago Calatrava

245. Ciudad de las Artes.
Valencia, Spain, 2002,
Santiago Calatrava

246. ING Group Headquarters, Amsterdam, 2002, Meyer en Van Schooten Arch

248. Kunsthaus Graz, Austria, 2003, Peter Cook und Colin Fournier, Bollinger
und Grohmann Eng

252. Zenith Music Hall, Strasbourg, France, 2008, Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas

261. Metropol Parasol, Seville, Spain, 2009, Jürgen Mayer, Arup

278. COMPLEX WALL GEOMETRIES

279. IAC Building, New York, 2007, Frank Gehry

280. • Frank O. Gehry's, three building complex (one is clad in metal, one in plaster, one in brick), Neuer Zollhof
(1998) in Duesseldorf, Germany, looks like an unstable collage. The walls of the center building have a
surface whose shape is much like that of folds of hanging fabric, where the undulating wall is clad in
polished stainless steel. It is an example of how computers are required to deal with the complexity of form
in designing and building a structure. The architect used the design software Catia to model the distorted
and twisted façade walls with window boxes sticking out, which are identical for all three buildings. In
contrast to Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao where the complex surfaces were formed by skeletons,
which were skinned, in the Neuer Zollhof they were solid concrete walls for the middle portion of the
building group (but for the 13-story tower concrete frame construction with fill-in masonry walls was used).
The walls were constructed from prefab panels (i.e. first Styroform molds, then steel reinforcing and finally
concrete) all different from each other using Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM). In other words, the
construction of the houses was approached similar to the production of car bodies or airplane wings.

282. Dancing house, Prague,1996, Frank Gehry

285. MIT Stata Center, Cambridge, Mass, 2004, Frank Gehry

292. Experience Music Center, Seattle, 2000, Frank Gehy

293. Project of Berkeley Art Museum, 2008, Toyo Ito

295. New Beijing Planetarium, 2005, AmphibianArc – Nanchi Wang

300. WDR Arcades/Broadcasting House on
Wallraff-Platz/Vierscheibenhaus,
Cologne, 1996, Gottfried Boehm

302. Prada Boutique Aoyama
Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, 2003,
Herzog & de Meuron

305. Tod’s Omotesanto Building,
Tokyo, Japan, 1997, Toyo Ito

311. Zollverein School of Management & Design, Essen, Germany, 2006, SANAA, Sasaki/ Bollinger

334. Novartis Campus
WSJ 158 Sanaa-
Building, Basel,
Switzerland, 2006,
SANAA, Mutsuro
Sasaki

335. Mikimoto Building,
Tokyo, 2006, Toyo Ito,
Mutsuro Sasaki

338. Dafen Art Museum, Shenzhen, 2007, China Urbanus Architecture & Design

341. IRREGULAR, VERTICAL BUILDINGS

342. Ibere Camargo Museum, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2007, lvaro Siza Vieira

346. National Space
Centre (42 m),
Leicester, UK,
2001, Nickolas
Grimshaw, Arup

347. Fort School,
Mumbai, India,
Chris Lee &
Kapil Gupta

348. Netherlands
Embassy,
Berlin,
2003, Rem
Koolhaas
Architects

354. New Museum of
Contemporary Art,
New York, 2008, Kazuyo
Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa
/ SANAA, Mutsuro Sasaki
Struct. Engineer

375. de Young
Museum, San
Francisco, CA,
2005, Herzog &
de Meuron

379. Audi Forum, Tokyo –the Iceberg, 2006,
Benjamin Warner

380. Creative Media Center (project), Hong Kong, 2008, Daniel Libeskind

381. NordDeutsche Landesbank am
Friedrichswall, Hannover, 2002,
Behnisch

382. Beekman Tower, New York, 2010, Frang Gehry

384. Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Frank Gehry, Schlaich

385. High Line (HL) 23, New
York, 2009, Neil M. Denari,
Desimone Consulting
Engineers

387. Tate Modern’s
planned extensionTate Modern’s
planned extension,
London, 2012
Jacques Herzog and
Pierre de Meuron

388. Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart, Germany, 2006, Ben van Berkel & Caroline
Bos, Werner Sobek

397. Za-Koenji public theater,
Tokyo,
2009, Toyo Ito

400. Parque Biblioteca. EspañaMedellín, Colombia, 2007, Giancarlo Mazzanti Arquitectos

407. Sendai Mediatheque, 2-
1, Kasuga-machi, Aoba-
ku, Sendai-shi 980-
0821, Japan, 2001, Toyo
Ito + Mutsuro Sasaki

408. His breakthrough came with the Sendai Mediatheque, a library and exhibition
space completed in 2001. Seen from a distance the structure looks like a
conventional Modernist glass box rising from one of Sendai’s busy, tree-lined
boulevards. The first hint of something out of the ordinary is a series of
enormous white latticework tubes that pierce the top of the structure, capped by
a delicate steel frame. The tubes seem to be arranged in a loose, almost
random pattern, and as you get closer, you realize they extend down through
the entire structure, connecting the floors. They not only hold up the building,
they house elevators, staircases and mechanical systems. Sunlight, reflected
from gigantic, computer-controlled mirrors, spills through them during the day,
giving the building an ethereal glow.
“The tubes are often compared to trees in a forest,” Mr. Ito told me through a
translator as we toured the building. “But they are also like objects in a
Japanese garden, where space is created by movement around carefully
arranged points, like ponds or stones.”
The idea was to free us, both physically and psychologically, from the rigidity of
the grid and what it implies — the Cartesian logic, the erasure of individual
identity. But the building is not just an isolated experiment. By echoing the forms
of the conventional slab buildings around it and aggressively distorting them, the
design suggests how the city too could be made more free and more human.

429. Summershall at MIT, Boston, USA, 2005, Steven Holl

431. Looped Hybrid Housing, Beijing, 2008, Steven Holl

443. Sliced porosity block, Chengdu, 2008-, Steven Holl

448. CCTV Headquarters and TVCC Building, Beijing, Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren, Arup Eng.

462. Phare Tower, La Défense, Paris. 2012, Thom Mayne’s (Morphosis, LA)

464. COMPLEX GEOMETRY
structure as the primary idea of architecture

466. Beijing National Stadium, 2008, Herzog and De Meuron Arch, Arup Eng

491. National Swimming Center, Beijing, 2008, Herzog de Meuron, Tristram Carfrae (Arup

511. Tomochi Forestry Hall,
Kumamoto, Japan, 2005,
Taira Nishizawa Architects

512. Floating Pavilion,
Groningen, Netherland,
1996, Fumihico Maki

514. Dining Hall Karlsruhe, Hochschule Karlsruhe, 2007, Jürgen Mayer H, ARUP

541. Caja Vital Kutxa, Vitria, Spain, 2007, Mozas + Aguirre Arquitectos

548. Belgium Court of Justice, Hasselt, Belgium, 2009, Jürgen Mayer H Architects

552. Landesvertretung NRW, Berlin, 2004, Petzinka Pink Arcitects

558. Glass Cube, Bad Driburg 2007, 3deluxe transdiciplinary design

561. Tama Art University Library, 2007, Toyo Ito, Sasaki Structural Consultants

565. Fabric formwork
The natural tension geometries given by formwork fabrics simplify the production of
lightweight, high efficiency structural shapes. The formworks themselves are
extraordinarily light and very inexpensive. The flexibility of a fabric formwork
membrane makes it possible to produce a multitude of architectural and structural
designs from a single, reusable mold. The use of permeable formwork membrane
fabrics produces improved surface finishes and strength as a result of a filtering
action allowing air bubbles and excess mix water to bleed through the formwork
membrane.
Methods for casting columns, walls, panels, beams, and slabs in both cast-in-place
and precast applications have been developed. Cast-in-place and precast fabric-
formed columns have been used structurally in Canada and internationally. Fabric
formwork products for casting foundation footings and small columns are being
manufactured and marketed by Fab-Form Industries of Surrey, B.C. The Centre for
Architectural Structures and Technology at the University of Manitoba is the first
academic research laboratory engaging in fabric formwork research. Research on
fabric formwork technologies invented at C.A.S.T. are being carried out in Chile at
its Catholic University of Valparaiso and the "Open City," and in Scotland at the
University of Edinburgh. Fabric-formed construction projects have also been carried
out in Japan by architect Kenzo Unno, inventor of an elegant cast-in-place fabric-
formed wall system.

566. Thin shell structures
Molds for lightweight compression shell
structures and building components such as
thin-shell compression vaults and double
curvature wall panels can be made by placing
concrete on a hanging sheet of fabric.
Pure compression geometries are directly
produced by simply inverting the tension-
resistant shapes given by the fabric
membrane.

567. Concrete Canopy Auditorium and Movie Theater,
Saint Cyprien, France, 2008, Serero Architects

569. TECHNOPOLE
INNOVIA of
Damparis,
France , 2008,
SERERO
Architectes,
IOSIS Group.

573. Magic Box, 2008, Jun Ueno of Magic Box Inc

574. Serpentine Gallery 2002, London, England – Toyo Ito + Cecil Balmond

616. Parc de relaxation, Torrevieja,
Alicante Spain, 2005, Toyo Ito , Sasaki

617. Proposal SOMA
Ground Zero Mosque
NY, 2010

618. The Aluminium Forest, Utrecht, Netherlands, 2001, Micha de Haas

620. For example, the structural engineer Mutsuro Sasaki of Japan conducts
experiments on refining the mathematical principles that allow buildings to escape
rigid geometric forms and take on more biomorphic shapes. He helped to
transform the complex geometries and ideas of architects like Toyo Ito and Arata
Isozaki into reality. Similarly, the renowned structural engineer Cecil Balmond of
Arup argues that structural engineers must become more intuitive and not just
work towards the known; in other words, they must develop a less skeletal but
more fluid understanding of structure. He points to the emergence of a new
aesthetics of asymmetrical structures that oppose traditional notions of tectonic
structures and stability. Structures derive from an animated sense of geometry
possibly based on natural forms that are constantly changing that is geometry
evolves out of modelling and testing.
The organizing geometry of the new aesthetics, however, often is not regular
anymore as for typical buildings. It may be random and dynamic as demonstrated,
for example, by the Beijing National Stadium (Fig.10.12) and the Beijing National
Swimming Center (Fig. 10.13). It is possible now with modelling software that
designers can explore forms and situations that they may have not been able to
conceive before. Freeform shapes in architecture have become a great
engineering challenge.

621. Kaohsiung Stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 2009,

629. Parc « Grin Grin », Island City, Fukuoka, Japan, 2005, Toyo Ito , Sasaki

630. EPFL learning center, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2010, SANAA, Mutsuro Sasaki

638. Convention Hall at the Qatar International Exhibition Centre, 2005, Mutsuro Sasaki

639. Proposal for train station, Florence, Italy, 2005, M. Sasaki + Arata Isozaki

640. Enabling collaborations
Today, shared Building Information Models (BIM), rather than just physical models, as with
Otto’s early projects, allow for feedback and integration between all the building professions,
including that of the construction team. Adams Kara Taylor (AKT), a London-based structural
and civil engineering firm of 40 people, will engage an architect’s ideas for a project design, but,
as engineer Hanif Kara says, they “do not pretend to be the architect.” Key to the firm is
teamwork and a constant dialogue with the architect. An in-house mathematics think tank with
computational specialists assists teams, and it is common to see five engineers from five
countries hunched over one computer as they jointly solve problems. AKT’s nonhierarchical
studio encourages creative thinking and innovation, but not at the cost of technical competence,
achieving what Kara calls “great engineering rather than bad architecture.” For its work on the
Peckham Library in London (2000), with Alsop & Stormer Architects, the concrete-filled steel
columns angle to support a cantilevered upper volume. Appearing like an upside down L-
shaped volume, the building’s structure freed Alsop from traditional constraints, opening the
library’s base to allow for public space. Kara, who worked for Anthony Hunt and also teaches at
the Architectural Association in London, engineered Zaha Hadid’s Phaeno Science Center in
Germany (2005), where structural redundancy was eliminated so that the walls and concrete
slab could combine as a continuous shell to achieve the fluid space the architect desired.
Currently, Kara is collaborating on the design with Foreign Office Architects (FOA) of the John
Lewis department store in Leicester, England (2007), that will also include retail and a cinema.
AKT’s proposed structural design enables FOA to foreground an intricate lacy glass facade by
engineering large spans for an atrium, an auditorium, and loading dock areas, in addition to
glass walkways through the atrium.

641. Before leaving to form her own firm, at Arup Jane Wernick engineered Hadid’s curvilinear
concrete Ski Jump in Bergisel in Innsbruck (2002) and the competition phase of
Angelil/Graham/Pfenninger/Scholl’s Portland Aerial Tram in Oregon. Taking into account what
Peter Rice taught her when she was at Arup, to “let the architects in on their secrets,” Wernick
says she always explains her process at the outset of a project. Among her more notable
achievements at Arup, her structural challenge for Marks Barfield Architects’ London Eye ferris
wheel (1999) was to design a 500-foot-high structure that moves, but would be stable and strong.
Not surprisingly, she found the bicycle wheel, as a tensegrity structure, to be the most
economical form. She resolved the structure with landside pylons supporting the wheel at the
hub, with the spindle cantilevering out to allow the wheel to be suspended over the Thames
River. Although unusual for historic London, the structural spectacle of the Eye has become one
of the city’s most exquisite examples of its engineering eminence.
Many times, the collaboration between architect and engineer results in buildings where
intensified structural patterns emerge from a mathematical or nature-derived basis that is
enabled by digital tools to become a kind of “deep decoration.” Tristram Carfrae, of Arup’s
Melbourne office, employed the concept of bubble structures for the Watercube National
Acquatics Center for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, designed with PTW Architects of Australia. The
center’s five pools are enclosed in a structure filled in with ETFE foil cushions—similar to those
used at Grimshaw Architects’ Eden Project in England (2001)—that both physically and literally
represents a swimming pool. Rather than adopt Frei Otto’s soap bubble investigations from the
Munich stadium, Arup explored the connectivity of cellular arrays to combine the surface pattern
with the internal structure of a ductile space frame that supports the long-span roof structure. The
varied ETFE hexagonal elements resolve both the environmental and structural design in a
nonlinear, unified form.

642. Material focus
Many engineers are interested in the structure of materials, as well as material-as-structure. The
Modernist fascination with glass, in its duality of fragility and strength, in addition to its varying
qualities of transparency and translucency, has played a notable part in many engineers’ oeuvre.
This can be found in the early work of Peter Rice’s bracketed glass wall systems for the Grand
Serres of the Science and Technology Museum in Paris’s Parc de la Villette, with architects Adrien
Fainsilber & Associés (1986), to structural glass systems of such contemporary practices as
Dewhurst Macfarlane, Schlaich Bergermann und Partner, and Werner Sobek. In June, Rice’s Paris-
based firm, RFR, completed the structure for a 460-foot-long toroidal transparent volume to expand
the Strasbourg TGV train station, designed by the architect Jean-Marie Duthilleul for the French
National Railways. Relying on a slender prestressed-steel structure, the use of cold-formed curved
and laminated glass minimizes its presence at the historic station. Working with Seele glass
manufacturers, and incorporating solar gain analysis from Stuttgart-based climate engineers
Transsolar, the project combines design, structure, and climate engineering in a truly holistic way
while resulting in a bubble form at the station. Bollinger & Grohmann, working with Mutsuro Sasaki
and Transsolar, devised a transparent sustainable office building in a Minimalist structure for
SANAA’s Novartis project in Basel, Switzerland (2007). The extremely thin reinforced-concrete floor
slabs supported by structural walls achieved the desired open floor spans, as well as transparency
through the rectilinear building. With design assistance from the New York–based facade
consultants Front, the translucent building appears as a thinly veiled glass box.
New York–based engineer Guy Nordenson, working with Los Angeles architect Michael Maltzan,
designed the Ministructure No. 16 in Jinhua City, China, a 1,300-square-foot pavilion in a historic
garden. Beginning the design with a concrete structure, the team switched to steel because of the
high water table. A hybrid Veirendeel steel structure, accompanied by smaller ladder trusses,
resulted in a double-perforated facade that creates an unexpected moiré pattern on the building’s
skin.

643. Algorithms and patterns of structure
Structural engineers have been doing analysis in 3D for decades, but now
they share those models with architects as digital versions of construction
drawings. These models now increasingly rely on complex computer-code-
based geometrical relationships that require engineers to be as much
programmers as designers. Much of this work has resulted from firms
designing their own software, such as Happold’s Tensyl for tensile
structures or Bollinger & Grohmann’s program for trusses, though
Autodesk’s Revit and Bentley’s Generative Components have revolutionized
design for many engineers.

644. Algorithmic design processes resulted in the structural maneuvers of Bollinger &
Grohmann’s proposed tessilations for Dominique Perrault’s Mariinsky Theatre II in St.
Petersburg, Russia (2008). The Mariinsky’s structure is defined by a system of
connected steel pyramids, like an asymmetric geodesic dome, filled in with cross ribs
that radiate out to support a metal-mesh infill. The shell wrapping the theaters appears
like a geode, where structure and skin are combined into one system, similar in theory
to the deep decoration found on Arup’s Watercube. Cecil Balmond, one of Arup’s
directors, works experimentally with algorithms with architects such as Rem Koolhaas,
Daniel Libeskind, and Toyo Ito. Balmond has written a book, Informal (2002), and his
projects are currently on view in The Frontiers of Architecture I exhibition at the
Louisiana Museum of Contemporary Art, in Denmark, through October. The 2002
Serpentine Pavilion in London expresses many of his concepts most explicitly.
Designed with Toyo Ito, the structure was based on twisted squares arranged in
circular patterns, connected with their primary lines of force. The overall patterning of
the shell, in crossing lines and planes, makes the skin and structure one—more similar
in concept to a traditional load-bearing wall than to systems of separate structure and
infill. The pavilion is a physical manifestation of an algorithm: Pattern and structure are
integrated and become a form. As Balmond says, “The design started with a simple
line that was repeated, releasing architecture from structure, rather than trapping
architecture through the structure.” Diagonally gridded exterior-structural-skin
systems have also become emblematic of his use of structure as pattern, as is the case
for the diagrid structural skin of OMA’s CCTV Tower, under construction in Beijing.

645. Nonlinear shaping of structure is dominant in Mutsuro Sasaki’s work in strong
collaborations with Toyo Ito and Arata Isozaki, as he believes there is a creative
process involved in developing hypotheses regarding a structure’s shape, system,
materials, and dimensions. Focusing on form-finding and shape design in
curvilinear and organic forms, Sasaki bases designs on principles of self-
organization in nature. Using his 3D Extended Evolutionary Structure Optimization
(ESO) method, he defines his forms within a collaborative digital model to result in
optimized and rational structures. For Ito’s Crematorium, in Kakamigahara Gifu,
Japan (2006), the curvilinear reinforced-concrete roof shell, only 7.8 inches thick,
was evaluated using Sensitivity Analysis, a systematized method for analyzing
curved surfaces to determine an efficient structural shape. As he describes in his
2006 book, Flux Structure, “By means of the repetitive nonlinear analysis
procedure it becomes possible to organically comprehend the evolution of
structural form in the overall structure from the relationships between its shape
and mechanical behavior.
hese perspectives in turn shape the future of complex space, as well as suggest
the realization of new paradigms for collaboration between design, structure, and
environment. The full integration of structural engineering into the process of
architecture does not guarantee good architecture or revolutionary space and
forms, but enables their potential to exist. Now more than ever, engineers are
embracing the natural world and poetically exploiting its logic to realize
architecture’s possibilities. As Ove Arup said in his “Key Speech,” the aims of his
firm are not “grasped arbitrarily out of the sky or willfully imposed, they are natural
and obvious.”