Engineering Architecture: Advances of a technological practice

The topic of the research concerns the evolution of the technologies used in architectural and engineering design of constructions, with particular reference to the computational tools; the interest focus on the influence on the methodological development of the design process and on the role played by the actors, technicians, professionals and consultants. The topic stems from the growing interest for free forms and complex geometries in architecture, and it is developed starting from the assumption that architectural design is a continuous process with an high level of multi-disciplinarity, in which every single requirement the project must fit cannot be evaluated separately and then simply added to each other. Especially with regard to the field of structures, many times the architectural value of a building is the result of a structural design which is not a mere technical contribute but is an integral part of the creative process.

The significance of the research is in the analysis and in the study of a process strongly featured by its natural multidisciplinary, as the case of architectural project, through a survey on computer technology and the development of an innovative approach based on the methods of the Operative Research.

The objective of the research is to provide a theoretical and conceptual frame for the development of robust, versatile and flexible methods and tools for the architectural design, with the aid of a set of real applications. The interaction between functional, aesthetic and structural requirements in complex architectural bodies, also well known as “Non Standard”, is studied with the aid of artificial intelligence techniques, with the aim of developing a suitable system of interfaces between the software applications used in geometric and structural modelling of the architecture.