Design of a load-bearing system for office buildings, constrained for extreme versatility and reuse

The goal of this research is to develop a structural (i.e. load bearing) system that can be reused over a minimum of three building lifespans.

The unusual requirements for such a promising system are threefold:

  • Elements must be robust enough to withstand chemical and mechanical attacks over a very long period of time, e.g. 200 years at almost zero maintenance cost.
  • It must be possible for the system to be deconstructed and reconstructed at least twice and with minimal transformation costs, meaning that very little material should need to be replaced or repaired.
  • In case of deconstruction/reconstruction, the modularity of the system should enable rearrangement of the geometry of the structural framework (spans, position of columns, walls and openings, etc.).