NCCR DFAB hosts 600 Fans of Shell Construction and Spacial Structures

On the occasion of the IASS Symposium, NCCR DFAB Director Philippe Block talks to world-architects.ch about the thinking behind this year's conference theme: Redefining the art of structural design.

Philippe Block heads the Institute for Technology in Architecture (ITA) at ETH Zurich. Together with the Professors Catherine De Wolf, Jacqueline Pauli and Walter Kaufmann, he has organised the IASS Symposium 2024, which will take place at ETH Campus Hönggerberg.

Philippe Block, it's a really big conference that you've planned here at ETH. You are expecting around 600 guests from all over the world. What attracts so many people?

The IASS Symposium (International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures) is a historic symposium; it was first held in 1959. What makes it special is that it is a very broad community of structural engineers from all over the world. It brings together people from science and practice to share their innovations. The IASS symposiums have always welcomed new ideas. Here, young students meet star engineers from all over the world. The last IASS symposium was held in Melbourne, and during the Covid period there has been no comparable event. Normally we expect around 300 to 400 participants, but this year we have realised that the entire community wants to meet again - we even had to increase the registrations.

The programme extends over the whole week and is very varied. In addition, the fact that the symposium is taking place here on the Hönggerberg with all its departments is a must for many.

I think that the appeal of Zurich for many lies in the fact that there are many innovations here in the field of structural engineering and in connection with fabrication. As far as the programme is concerned, there will be a large exhibition about the Swiss structural engineer Heinz Isler. The exhibition ‘Heinz Isler Models’ is based on Giulia Boller's dissertation. She has analysed his work not from a historical or archival perspective, but rather at the level of constructive design. There will also be workshops on the first weekend and all-day technical tours of concrete and timber innovations on the last day of the symposium.

In the programme you have named a session ‘NCCR DFAB Local Heroes’. What is this all about?

The organiser of this year's IASS is the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication (DFAB). In the session ‘NCCR DFAB Local Heroes’, we invite researchers from the NCCR DFAB to the stage who have become role models in digital fabrication with their research projects and their engagement. We will show some important highlights of our work. After all, the guests stay with us for several days and we want to give them a look behind the scenes. For example, the truly spectacular roof in the HIB building at ETH Zurich will be presented, and EMPA's NEST will also be the subject of the programme. As part of the programme, guests can really get to know our work.

I can well imagine that it was not easy for you and those responsible to select the contributions for the programme from all the work submitted.

Well, as I said, the IASS is a special case here because less mature research also gets a place in the programme. We have filtered the submissions into working groups so that we can cover as broad a spectrum of subject areas as possible. In the end, we will give a plattform to over 400 publications over the four days, some shorter, some longer. Because the reality is that at many universities you have to give a presentation in order to receive funding - of course we don't want to stand in the way of that.

It is a great opportunity for young researchers to meet with others and get feedback on their research. At the same time, other conference contributions establish a link to the past, to historical figures from the world of technology.

Yes, exactly. Under the theme ‘Reimagining and Redefining the Art of Structural Design’, we also refer to the Swiss heritage of greats such as Menn, Isler and Maillard, which David P. Billington talks about in ‘The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy’. All of these architects emphasised cost efficiency, material economy and elegance in their work. I find it remarkable that this was a term that engineers used early on to give meaning to their building.

This is another reason why we have expanded the conference to include environmental and ethical issues. The environmental theme is clear, because our industry obviously has an impact on the climate. On ethics, I want to be provocative: I don't think it's five to 12, but already five past 12 when it comes to all these environmental issues. And that engineers, especially civil engineers, can no longer remain in a passive role, but must become active. Everyone involved in construction must finally recognise their responsibility as a community and get involved!

As keynote speakers, we have invited Anupama Kundoo, Laurent Ney and Mariam Issoufou, personalities who already fulfil this responsibility. Of course, some talks will be more about ethics, others about the environment or elegance. This is understandable, as they all have different backgrounds, which will show us listeners the great diversity of the topic.

That's easy to understand and sounds interesting. But as far as ethics and economics are concerned, you have participants from all over the world - ethics is a pretty broad field. In one place materials are cheap, in another country human labour costs almost nothing. How do you find a balance or a common understanding of what is ethical in this context?

That's exactly the point we need to think about, yes. What does it mean to act in different contexts and to be both responsible and economical. I think it's particularly important for the IASS community to think about this.

The IASS was originally founded as the International Association for Shell Structures. At the first conference, Heinz Isler presented his very first ideas for shell structures before he was even famous. Candela also belonged to this community, and today the next generation of young creators comes together with us. People meet here who are not only interested in designing beams, but also in spatial configurations. You could say that the nerds of the scene meet here, who are highly specialised, who want to reflect on their work and incorporate it into a larger whole.

This reminds me of experiences from architecture events that I have attended in the past. I always had the feeling that people who are already very aware of the problems meet at such events. But shouldn't knowledge and awareness be spread much more widely, for example to publicise research in the construction industry?

That is the case, yes, sometimes at such events ‘the converted are among themselves’. However, many of the participants also teach, and they pass on their knowledge to the next generation. Teaching the basics of engineering may not be that spectacular, but it is probably one of the most effective ways of embedding important concepts and providing food for thought. Because one thing is clear: we also have a great responsibility when it comes to teaching the basics and everyone should be aware that this can no longer be done in the same way as it was 10, 20 or 50 years ago.

Looking back, when would you consider the conference a success, and what would you be pleased about?

I simply hope that we can create a broad awareness among young people. Be it through the presentations or through the keynote speakers, who are absolutely inspiring. And we use the beautiful Zurich and the exciting campus to bring people together. Let's make sure that we can have all these encounters and exciting exchanges! Then the participants will go home with new ideas and approaches and be able to spread the knowledge further. If we can do that for some of them, then I think we will have been very successful.

This interview was conducted by Katinka Corts / world-architects. Read the original article here.