Structures I: Introduction to Structural Systems

A first course in structures that introduces students to the science and art of structural design. Participants will master the basic formulas essential to structural design and use a simple but powerful technique to design elegant structures of their own. This course is excellent for practitioners interested in enhancing their knowledge of structures and mastering a tool that will allow them to bring creativity to conceptualizing the structural aspects of their projects. Through lectures, demonstrations, and design exercises using computational and simple but powerful graphical techniques, students will learn to find form and forces for longspan suspension, arch, shell, truss, and cable-stayed structures. The course will examine a broad selection of the world’s great roof and bridge structures, analyze them, and relate them to student’s own design projects. Through these activities, students will develop a working familiarity with the fundamentals of statics, the concept of funicular form, and bending action in beams and slabs.