Form Finding Lab – Princeton University

Welcome

By 2050, 70% of the world population will live in cities. Today already 50% live in an urban environment and produce more than 75% of all C0₂ emissions. Finding intelligent and efficient ways to provide for more people with fewer resources will make cities more resilient to manmade and natural disasters and reduce their impact on the environment. Our long-term research goal is to transform the engineering design framework for a future-oriented built urban environment. Our research program addresses the following two core questions: What is the relationship between form and efficiency in civil structures?; and With increasing pressure on the preservation of natural resources, how can design theories and tools match untested sculptural ideas to material-efficient, constructible structures?

Please feel free to get in touch if you are interested in pursuing collaboration.

Prof. S. Adriaenssens
Associate Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Princeton University

PUBLICATION: Assessing the stability of unreinforced masonry arches and vaults: a comparison of analytical and numerical strategies

D. Fang, R. Napolitano, T. Michiels, S. Adriaenssens, ‘Assessing the Stability of Unreinforced Masonary Arches and Vaults: A Comparison of Analytical and Numerical Strategies’, Journal of Architectural Heritage, doi: 10.1080/15583058.2018.1463413, 2018

CONGRATS: TIM SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDS HIS PhD THESIS

Congratulations to Tim Michiels who successfully presented his doctoral research on Monday! You can watch his presentation video and Q&A on the Form Finding Lab Facebook page.

AWARD AND PRESENTATION: ASCE STRUCTURES CONGRESS

We are at the ASCE SEI Congress in Fort Worth, Texas to present our innovative course CEE546 "Form Finding of Structural Surfaces" and to receive the ASCE George Winter Award.

FUNDING: SHELLS AND DOMES IN SEISMIC REGIONS

The Princeton International Fund has awarded us a grant to continue our scholarship into the potential of shell and domes in seismic regions in collaboration with the University of Roma Tre, Italy.

PANEL: ENGINEERING AND THE SMART SUSTAINABLE CITY

We discussed what will a smart sustainable city look like from an engineering perspective at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Conference on Smart Cities and Innovations in Urban Government, March 9th 2018

FUNDING: ENGINEERING DESIGNS OPTIMIZED FOR PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION OF ESTHETICS

We are super happy to our proposal to generate new knowledge of how systems can be engineered to be not only efficient and economic, but also be perceived as being esthetic, has been funded by the Council for Science and Technology. This research project is the first collaboration between the research groups of Prof. Adriaenssens and Prof. Todorov (Department of Psychology PSY).

AWARD: Prof. Adriaenssens wins the 2018 ASCE George Winter Award

Prof. Adriaenssens will be awarded the 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers George Winter Award at the ASCE Structures Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. This award is important to us as it recognises the value of the integration of engineering and art in our work.

WELCOME TO TWO STUDENT RESEARCH COLLABORATORS

In this new year, we welcome Giulia Tomasello and Martina Russo from Roma Tre and Sapienza University of Rome respectively to work with us on (historic) shell structures.

PUBLICATION: PARAMETRIC STUDY OF SHELLS FORM-FOUND FOR SEISMIC LOADING

A last publication for this year! T. Michiels, S. Adriaenssens, J.J. Jorquera-Lucerga ‘ Parametric Study of Masonry Shells Form Found for Seismic Loading ‘ , Journal of the International Association of Shell and Spatial Structures, 2017. 58 pp.267-275

INVITED TALK: KYOTO UNIVERSITY

Our latest work on form finding of shells under extreme loading will be presented and discussed next week (17th of November) at Kyoto University. We look forward to the exchange of ideas of our presentation “Form Finding of Shells under Earthquake Loading”.

INVITED TALK: TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

On November 14th of November, I will be presenting our work on the relationship between form and forces in sustainable and resilient structures at Tokyo Institute of Technology.

PUBLICATION: Identification of key design parameters for earthquake resistance of reinforced concrete shell structures

You can freely download our latest published paper on the behavior of shells under earthquake loading here until December 21st 2017. https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1V~HJW4G4Bizo

PUBLICATION: Form-finding algorithm for masonry arches subjected to in-plane earthquake loading

We are really happy with this new publication in Computers and Structures. T. Michiels, S. Adriaenssens, ‘ Form-finding algorithm for masonry arches subjected to in-plane earthquake loading’, Computers and Structures, vol. 195,pp. 85–98, 2018

AWARD: TIM MICHIELS WINS THE HANGAI AWARD

Yesterday our PhD Candidate Tim Michiels was awarded the Hangai prize for his “Outstanding paper by a young talented researcher under 30” at the annual symposium of the International Association of Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) in Hamburg. Tim presented his research titled “Parametric study of masonry shells form found for seismic loading” during the plenary session on Tuesday.

PRESENTATION: IASS shells, nets, membranes

We have no less than 5 presentations plus one chaired session on "Disaster and Extreme Loading" this year at the IASS 2017 Symposium in Hamburg. Come and join us!

LECTURE: UNIVERSITEIT VAN GENT

I am delighted to be presenting our research tomorrow at the University of Ghent, where I am a guest professor during my well-deserved sabbatical. "In pursuit of better urban forms" at Labo Magnel, University of Ghent, Science Park, Zwijnaarde.