Changing Perspectives: Bridging Design and Engineering in Architectural Research

Abstract

TA D 6 : 2 Nowadays, the design process for a building is increasingly difficult to define as it may involve innovative material integration, advanced design computation, and analytical decision-making, combined with various engineering and technical applications. Reflecting on this, the necessary and productive links between architectural design and engineering are undisputable. The peer-review papers in this issue demonstrate shifts in research perspectives not only closely linking engineering and design tools but also focusing on a critical analysis of the design and engineering process, including formats and voices frequently not considered in the past. The papers in Engineering confirm a rising recognition of collaborative authorship of many team members and continuing horizontal integration of disciplines observing the design phase, the outcome, and the lifecycle of structures. Three papers of the five in this issue address history and theoryrelated themes, adding further nuance to existing bodies of knowledge. In the twentieth century, numerous architects and engineers expressed the need to bridge design and engineering, advocating for integrated design methods and fabrication workflows. The Italian engineer Pier Luigi Nervi advocated for “architectural resilience,” an evolving relationship between architectural materiality, techniques, and forms. As laid out by Kristin Jones and Zaida Garcia-Requejo in their paper “Mies’ Teaching Laboratory: from Convention Hall to McCormick Place,” Mies van der Rohe predicted a type of “structural architecture,” fostering teamwork between structural engineers and architects in his classroom at IIT and practice. The authors expand the existing body of scholarly research around Mies van der Rohe by investigating the collaborative nature of the classroom, identifying influential teaching principles, thesis projects, and buildings acting as touchstones in the development of McCormick Place (Lakeside) Convention Center in Chicago. Students thesis projects, oral histories, and less frequently heard voices are part of the investigation, documenting a complex network of links between Mies' unbuilt proposal for a Convention Hall for Chicago and McCormick Place (Lakeside) Convention Center. In “The Evolution of Modeling for Lightweight Structures: Creating the Munich Olympic Roof (1967—72),” Robert Whitehead contextualizes the evolving modeling methods used during the conception of the Munich Olympic stadium roof by discussing the complexities of structural behavior found in lightweight cable nets. The paper also accounts for the innovative contributions of many more team members than are commonly acknowledged and illustrates the unique interdisciplinary roles of the architects and engineers involved in a dynamic, collaborative process. In the reconstruction and restoration research paper about the SAMARA House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Li et al. detail how a digital-centered multistage framework supports the mission of an interdisciplinary team (architecture, engineering, construction management, architectural engineering) to plan the restoration of a heritage building with a detailed and comprehensive survey, documentation, and analytics. Digital tools and approaches are incorporated into this work to excavate and understand the structural deformation and degradation. At the same time, the restoration plan still preserves the original design integrity effectively and efficiently. The integrative process bridging design and engineering is also manifested in the other two papers in this issue. In the research paper by Ying Yi Tan, Pei Zhi Chia, Yu Han Quek, Kenneth Tracy, and Christina Yogiaman, a new design-to-fabrication workflow was developed for multi-material knits patterned textiles and used for a prototype in a case study. The workflow development process considers the characteristics of textile materials and the engineering principles of knitting patterns and mechanics. The facade panel fabrication and geometry design have also been considered. In their paper “Introduction to the Multilevel Building System Integrated Timber Central Core (ITCC) Tests of the core corner joints,” Ferdinand Oswald, John Chapman, and Qun Wang designed and examined a new structural form of ITCC with engineered timber materials for high-rise timber buildings. This research work is rooted in wood structural engineering while fundamentally motivated by the architectural perspective of creating open and bright working spaces and flexible and efficient circulation routes. The Peer-Review papers in this issue reflect a much-needed discourse about process and materiality, collaboration and interdisciplinarity. Changing Perspectives: Bridging Design and Engineering in Architectural Research