Sigrid Adriaenssens (Princeton University, USA) at IBOIS
© 2014 EPFL
Prof. Sigrid Adriaenssens (from the Form Finding Lab, Princeton University, USA) gave a talk at Ibois last Friday, 3rd of October, 2014.
Prof. Sigrid Adriaenssens talk : Elastic Structures.
Current design theory holds that excessive changes in geometry are undesirable in conventional civil structures. However the natural world is abundant examples where extreme deformations are the normal state. Her research challenges this restricting structural philosophy with the hypothesis that large elastic deformations can be successfully employed as beneficial design strategy for novel light weight systems. She presented her recent research advances on typologies that benefit from non-linear geometric effects – bending active beam and shell systems as well as novel suspension bridges.
About Sigrid Adriaenssens:
Sigrid Adriaenssens is a structural engineer and Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, USA, where she directs the Form Finding Lab. She has a PhD in lightweight structures from the University of Bath since 2000, adapting the method of dynamic relaxation to strained gridshells. She worked as a project engineer for Jane Wernick Associates, London, and Ney + Partners, Brussels, Belgium. While at Ney + Partners, her projects won (inter)national architectural and construction prizes (2012 Golden Amsterdam Architecture Prize for Dutch Marine Museum, 2010 Wallonia Biennale of Architecture for the footbridge in Verviers, 2007 Belgian Steel Construction Award for the Pavillon Economique). She is the first author of “Shaping Forces: Laurent Ney” and the recently published book “Shells for Architecture: structural form-finding and optimization”. She co-curated the exhibitions “Fazlur Khan:Structural Artist of Building Forms”, “The Resilient City: Conquering the Sky” and "Evolution of German Shells: Efficiency in form".