Codes for Design of Sustainable Structures

Given the tremendous challenges our society is facing, i.e. in regard to the expected changes in our environment due to climate change and the increasing pressure on our natural resources, the international research community is in demand to find solutions that provide the foundation for our sustainable development.

Here, the built environment is of obvious importance as it not only facilitates societal activity but also has a major share on the worldwide turnover of economic and environmental resources.

To date the built environment is developed and maintained by broadly following structural design standards, which did evolve continuously over time and contain safety concepts that support daily structural engineering decision making based on simple calculus.

The major objective that has been followed in their development, was the provision of sufficient safety, and the observed relative low failure rates do proof success in this regard.

However, as conceived, structural design codes do not allow for the optimal allocation of the limited financial and environmental resources into the structural performance.

In this context, the proposed project will develop methodologies to calibrate the safety concept of existing design standards, such that their broad implementation will lead to a significant increase of resource efficiency with simultaneous conservation of the present average safety level.

Environmental, economic and societal aspects will be explicitly considered and the potential benefits will be exemplified on the building stocks of two European countries.

Presented and disseminated by means of user-friendly tools and demonstrators in a form that is not only accessible to expert groups, but also to other stakeholders involved in standardization procedures, the results of the project are expected to have a substantial impact on future structural design procedures, contributing to sustainable societal development.