Welcome
Structural engineering prompted by resilience and sustainability, as well as advances in other fields such as architecture, mechanics, computing and manufacturing, is evolving towards complex design solutions. These solutions often have specific peculiar forms, are made of new materials, and may also be required to serve non-traditional functions. Moreover, sometimes they have to be biocompatible or integrate sensors and actuators that enable them to change form or behavior. The complexity of such solution questions 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 refers to the processes that control the organized spatial distribution of material and often units that compose the overall structure. Computer-aided structural design reflects a holistic and integrated framework of structural morphogenesis for designing tomorrow's structures through a combination of physical and numerical modeling.
Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, PhD
News / Highlights
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.
More details coming soon.
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.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
January 2020
Our work on using coral restoration for shoreline protection, the development of the SEAHIVE system and the adaption strategies against flooding for affordable housing buildings will be presented at Miami Climate Symposium - Predicting and Living with Extremes.
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.