Welcome
Structural engineering prompted by sustainability and resilience, as well as advances in other fields such as architecture, mechanics, computing and manufacturing, is evolving towards complex design solutions that often question our traditional design strategies. Structural morphology refers to the study of the relation between a structure, its function, form, material, and forces. In an analogy with biology, structural morphogenesis represents the processes that control the organized spatial distribution of material and modules in a structure. In Computer-Aided Structural Engineering (CASE) Lab, we focus on the structural morphology and morphogenesis of tomorrow's structures using a holistic and integrated framework of numerical and physical modeling. Our applications and interests span from marine and coastal structures to building and infrastructure systems to space structures. We also seek and support artistic and educational STEAM projects.
Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, PhD
News / Highlights
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VIRTUAL SEMINAR
October 2020
We will be presenting our work on the computational morphogenesis of tensegrity systems at the ETHZ Computational Science Coffee Series, an informal seminar series intended to foster cross-disciplinary discussion around the topic of computational sciences.
JOURNAL PUBLICATION
September 2020
Our paper on the dissipation of wave energy by a hybrid artificial reef in a wave simulator was accepted for publication in Limnology and Oceanography: Methods. The paper presents the methodology of our study on the added effects produced by the presence of corals on a trapezoidal artificial reef model. It is the first paper on an exciting new direction for our lab where we explore structural morphology for coastal and marine structures.
JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
August 2020
Our papers on the mechanism creation in tensegrity structures through cellular morphogenesis, and the analysis of self-equilibrated networks through cellular modeling were accepted for publication in Acta Mechanica and Proceedings of the Royal Society A, respectively. Both papers are now available online through their respective journals.
Should you be interested in them, do not hesitate to contact us.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
May 2020
Congrats to Dr. Omar Aloui, first Ph.D. student of our lab! Omar's thesis proposes a novel bio-inspired generative design method for tensegrity structures: cellular morphogenesis.
Starting this winter, Omar will be joining EPFL and the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems as a post-doc to investigate the future of artificial intelligence and robotics at the convergence of biology and engineering, humans and machines.