The Shape of stress

As time progresses, structural engineering has become increasingly focused on analysis, with solutions needed for geometries defined either by architects or driven by mass production and economics. Our bodies instinctively understand how gravity works, but how can we make definitive sense of the ever-increasing numbers presented in digital results?  While the numbers provide a clearer view of the results for discrete elements, intuition, innovation, and visualization are essential to verify and build confidence in a digital solution. Historic structural failures have occurred that could have been easily recognized and prevented with a thorough understanding of the shape of stress. Visual techniques exist in many of the subfields of structures but are not combined as a discussed or valued methodology. Through more than three decades of innovative work, Paul Endres of Endrestudio has employed the principals of visual structural design in a uniquely integrated architecture + structural research and design practice. While there are economic benefits to designing with the 'Shape of Stress,' material reduction provides dramatic savings in the earth's resources, supporting environmental objectives and creating spaces and structures that we can embrace and remember.

1 CE credit

Learning Objectives

• Understand the value in visual intuitive design principles.
• Identify techniques useful in interpreting computer results
• Using the shape of stress to inform conceptual design decisions

Location

Cliff Dwellers Club
200 S. Michigan Ave, 22nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60604

Complimentary appetizers available:  5 – 6 pm
Presentation time:  6:00 – 7:00 pm

Registration

This event is FREE, and will be both in-person as well as live-streamed. You must RSVP in order to attend, whether online or in person.

About the Speaker

Paul Endres, FAIA SE LEED AP
Principal - Endrestudio
Reaching across the lines that segregate professions, Paul both designs buildings and perfects innovative structural concepts, carrying Endrestudio projects from inception to built form, and collaborating with other designers to achieve their visions.

His projects include private residences, pedestrian bridges, science museums, and schools, and he has pioneered structural concepts such as a torquing spiral helix, ziggurat bar stair designs, floating roofs of cable and wood, and glass bridges. Paul’s design merges philosophical, architectural, and engineering processes into projects that perform with elegance and simplicity.

In addition to being a licensed architect, civil engineer, and structural engineer in multiple states, Paul held the Morgenstern Chair at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, where he lectured and conducted a design studio refining his work on structure and space.