Resource-Efficient Structural Design

Structures are the bones and muscles of our built environment and at the same time a major contributor to resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, the standards guiding how structures are designed today do not fully account for the need to balance material efficiency with safety and functionality, nor do they incorporate circular design principles that allow for safe and confident reuse of reclaimed components. With millions of structures being built and demolished annually, there’s an urgent need to rethink the foundations of structural design to ensure a sustainable future. The REStructureD Project aims to transform the way we design engineering structures. Moving away from traditional, linear and overly simplified procedures, this project introduces a pioneering approach that merges advanced optimization techniques, like risk-informed decision making and parametric structural design, with a methodology that leverages the potential of available information on reclaimed components. This integrated framework will guide the creation of customized, resource-efficient structures that maximize the use of existing materials. To make this shift practical, the project will develop user-friendly tools that will demonstrate the feasibility of the novel structural design approach and promote its adoption within the industry. By providing a clear pathway for industry uptake and engaging with standardization committees, REStructureD paves the way toward sustainable, efficient, and circular construction practices for the future.

Structural design standards play a key role in shaping the large impact of construction activities on the use of resources and greenhouse gas emissions. They contain the decision rules that regulate the use of material needed to provide sufficiently safe and functional engineering structures (buildings, bridges, etc.). However, these rules fail in prescribing the desired optimum balance between the structure-inherent performance level and the amount of material allocated to this end. In addition, their scope disregards the significant potential of circular design strategies. Given the millions of structures annually built and demolished across the globe, ground-breaking modifications to the inefficient methodologies and procedures for decision making in structural design constitute an up to date nearly unexplored pathway towards a more sustainable development of our built environment. The project REStructureD will develop a consistent, scientific basis for a paradigm shift on how engineering structures are designed in the future. Away from generic and linear approaches, the project explores the idea of combining the advantages of the most advanced optimisation strategies (risk-informed decision approaches and parametric design), on one hand, and circular strategies, on the other. A comprehensive framework for such a tailor-made, and resource-efficient structural design approach will be developed, supported by a methodology and procedures, which maximize the benefit of available information in the condition assessment of reclaimed structural components and enable their confident reuse in the design of new structures. Operational digital tools will demonstrate the benefits of the developments and the feasibility of their user-friendly implementation in everyday structural design practice, in view of a broad uptake by the industry. These tools will also facilitate dissemination and communication to standardisation committees and other relevant stakeholder communities.