MEPs vote to ban single-use plastics such as straws and cotton buds

The workshop will incorporate carbon footprint evaluation and circular economy into a structural design workflow with a focus on timber structures. Through the combined use of parametric tools for structural design such as Karamba3D, and optimization tools such as Octopus, comparative strategies will be used to mediate between purely structural and environmental criteria, suggesting a more holistic design process. In the context of the climate emergency, architects and engineers try to reduce the environmental impact of structures through a shift in their design process. The use of recycled material plays a major role in this approach. One of the central questions is how can we design sustainable and smart structures by intelligently using recycled elements. Many factors such as the history of the elements, their condition, or their location influence the design, the carbon footprint, and the price. Parametric structural design tools, coupled with multi-dimensional optimization methods, can help to explore the design space and evaluate designs concerning those criteria.