THE STRUCTURAL FORM: Topology Optimization in Architecture and Industrial Design

The expression Structural Form is used to define the co-existence of two aspects: Form and Structure. In the constructive practice, form and structure are not always integrated and can appear separately; the skin of a building can hide a different inner structure or the style of an object is often independent from its structural system. In many cases the Structural Form is the result of man's adaptation to special conditions: climatic, historical, economical, cultural. In nature that definition is adopted by the life forms following the evolutionary principles that rule the development of biological forms. In mostly of life-forms, structure and form tend to be coincident. Branches of trees and skeleton bones have a specific Structural Form which define their function and design. In this sense Structural Form has a natural meaning. The natural meaning of Structural Form can be adopted in special forms of structural elements, created to build specific architectures. This concept was applied in the past to build architectures based on empirical knowledge and it has been abandoned in the last century to follow abstract forms. The experiences shown in the present work have demonstrated how structural optimization procedures, like topology optimization, are able to mimic natural processes in defining architectural structures and industrial design objects with an aesthetic added-value that might represent an alternative and attractive vision.