Christian Menn and his bridges on the one hand and David Billington on the other hand
DESIGN EXPERIENCE 3: Precedents and inspiration
Design has the a reputation of being associated with wild creativity. Yet engineering design must involve a harnessed use of that creativity. Imagine how inefficient it would be if every bridge designer in the world started designing his/her first bridge without prior study of an existing bridge. Engineering design has the beautiful advantage of a starting point: precedents. “I have a feeling that good design, … Continue reading DESIGN EXPERIENCE 3: Precedents and inspiration
Engineering, Beauty and a Longing for the Infinite
This article originally appeared in Scientific American on October 22, 2019 and was written by Margarita A. Mooney. I do not have copyright to this article so I strongly encourage you to click on the link and read it in its original version. It describes so well the value of the 2019 summer course we taught and bringing engineering and beauty together. Thank you Margarita … Continue reading Engineering, Beauty and a Longing for the Infinite
The art and engineering of curved folding
Curved crease origami is a special type of origami which folds along curved creases instead of straight ones. Due to the curved creases, the paper bends while folding, resulting in complex and beautiful forms that can be used in engineering applications from cars to novel architectural structures. It is no coincidence that the curved crease origami pioneer, David Huffman ,was also a computer scientist and … Continue reading The art and engineering of curved folding
DESIGN EXPERIENCE 2: drawing in the design process
Drawing connects the hand to the mind. So it is no wonder that all exemplary designers (whether they are in fashion or in structures) are very skilled at making clear and convincing drawings to inform their own thought process, go into a dialogue with and convince the client. In this post I give you some advice on creating drawings and incorporating them into the design … Continue reading DESIGN EXPERIENCE 2: drawing in the design process
NETS AND DANCE: IN*TENSION
The Barry Onouye studio at the University of Washington (UW) highlights the intersection of architecture and structural design by inviting an outside structural designer to co-teach a studio + seminar. With the central theme of performance, this year’s studio explored tension-based structures, through tensioned and draped nets: we studied how nets can be imagined and built for visual and choreographic expression and this project won … Continue reading NETS AND DANCE: IN*TENSION
CELEBRATE PRINCETON INNOVATION: our Adaptive Solar Shade celebrated for energy savings potential!
In the context of a changing climate, the impact from human activities can be reduced by improving the quality of what we already have. Actions such as improving gas mileage for cars, reducing the waste of agricultural products or improving building energy efficiencies are actions that do not requirement leapfrog technological advances but a public desire to move things in the right direction. We decided … Continue reading CELEBRATE PRINCETON INNOVATION: our Adaptive Solar Shade celebrated for energy savings potential!
DESIGN EXPERIENCE 1: the role of constraints in the design process
Before joining academia, I worked in two (then) small and creative engineering design consultancies (Jane Wernick Associates, London, UK and Ney and Partners, Brussels, Belgium). I had the good fortune of designing and building a number of awe-inspiring building and bridges. You will find my portfolio with some works described in some detail here. In this series, I will walk you through a number of … Continue reading DESIGN EXPERIENCE 1: the role of constraints in the design process
What I am thinking: historian and structural engineer Tyler Sprague
Tyler S. Sprague teaches courses in structural design & architectural history at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. He holds engineering degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Washington (UW) and worked professionally as a structural engineer before completing a Ph.D. in architectural history in the College of Built Environments at the UW. Sprague’s research investigates the intersection of architecture … Continue reading What I am thinking: historian and structural engineer Tyler Sprague
StoneMatters: QAMT/Analogy
Here we present the recent work QAMT/Analogy – Stone Matters by Elias and Yousef Anastas.We are always proud to showcase the amazing works of the Form Finding Lab alumni such as Yousef. Born as a reaction to a systematic misuse of clad stone in Palestine, Stone matters is an experimentation-based research project examining the potential of including structural stone within the language of contemporary architecture … Continue reading StoneMatters: QAMT/Analogy
Form Finding Lab 