Traditionally, the development of tall buildings’ forms was a direct product of a close and meaningful collaboration between the architect and... Show moreTraditionally, the development of tall buildings’ forms was a direct product of a close and meaningful collaboration between the architect and structural engineer. This was particularly evident in Chicago during the Modern Era in the architectural design of tall buildings, which provided the key ingredient of architectural form–structure interaction. The quest for iconic, individualistic forms during the Postmodern Era, however, has led to the shift away from the traditional format. New approaches to design began to overemphasize aesthetics and style while paying less attention to structure and the rigorous discipline it requires. In such approaches, issues pertaining to structure are typically addressed after the fact – that is, after the architectural form is well articulated – which necessarily limits the structural design role to solving the problem rather than integrating the structural solution into the architectural concept. This has resulted in an apparent disconnect between architectural form and structure in contemporary tall buildings. To address this disconnect, this research proposes a methodological digitallybased design approach that permits direct and concurrent interaction between the structural and formal design considerations pertaining to tall buildings during the conceptual design phase. Such an approach builds on the generative capabilities offered by available parametric/associative systems and the added potential of integrating them with structural analysis and evaluation tools. Through such integration, a performance feedback loop has been initiated to guide the iterative, parametric form development. Demonstration of the design approach has been carried out based on a number of design scenarios. Such demonstration illustrated the tool’s potential for assisting architects in realizing their conceptual ideas not only visually, but also structurally and materially. The process developed in this research yields architectural forms that respond positively to structure without in any way jeopardizing the visual intent of the architectural concept. The research concludes by remarking on the validity of the proposed approach, highlighting the research’s achievements, addressing the research’s limitations, and proposing directions for future research. Ph.D. in Architecture, May 2011 Show less
