The embodied and operational carbon emissions from buildings account for 38% of all carbon emissions globally.
Embodied emissions are being reduced via low-carbon structural materials e.g., witness the renaissance in timber construction and further the huge potential for responsible re-introduction of natural stone as a load bearing material.
This presentation will examine features of these natural materials that can be leveraged to promote their decarbonising potential.
We will view the materials through the lens of digitalisation to streamline the iterative architectural / structural design process and to stimulate the supply chain by using robotic manufacture coupled to large-scale tests for improved quality control and productivity of site-friendly modules.
These concepts will be illustrated using projects at Stuttgart University and via exemplar large-scale experiments at University College London (UCL) on lightweight prestressed stone and timber-stone composite modules.
The webinar will take place on the RIBA Academy. IStructE members can register free of charge by following the link above to the RIBA website and applying the discount code IStructE&RA100% at checkout.
Speakers
Speaker
Professor Knippers is Professor of Structural Engineering and deputy director of the cluster of excellence on Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture at Stuttgart University, Germany. Currently he is Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor at University College London. He operates at the digital interfaces between structural engineering practice, architectural design and robotic manufacturing to enable realisation of lightweight, modular timber and fibre polymer composite structures. Examples include the Elytra filament pavilion at the V&A in London (2016), the Maison Fibre at the Venice Biennale (2021), and the fibre composite facade of the Texoversum building for the Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences in Germany (2023).
Speaker
Professor Sebastian is Professor of Structural Engineering at University College London (UCL). He previously won a Royal Academy of Engineering Leverhulme Fellowship to develop a computational strategy for strengthening concrete structures. His research has influenced international design guidance, e.g., TS 19101 for fibre polymer composite bridges. He was editor-in-chief of the Institution of Civil Engineers' Structures and Buildings journal (2017-2023) and is now editor of the Construction and Building Materials journal. Working with industry he has led large scale ad-hoc lab tests and field monitoring projects to underpin low-carbon innovations including modular timber-concrete composite floors subsequently used in the award-winning Kantor Centre of Excellence building (London, 2019), timber-stone composites and prestressed stone modules (ongoing), cemfree concrete - steel composites (2023) and fibre polymer composite bridges.
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