• Valentina Tomei, University Niccolò Cusano – Rome, Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering
• Ernesto Grande, University Guglielmo Marconi – Rome, Department of Engineering Sciences
• Maura Imbimbo, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering – Italy

Nowadays, design optimization techniques often play an important role in the conception of modern architecture and civil engineering constructions since they merge structural requirements and architectural features in the complex design processes leading to fascinating and efficient solutions. Structural optimization techniques, basically referring to sizing, shape and topology optimization, can also represent valid tools in defining preliminary strategies to steer the design process toward solutions that can be optimal in terms of different aspects such as structural, functional or aesthetic. Often structural optimization techniques are combined with form finding techniques especially in design of large canopies thanks to its capacity to find the shape accommodating the force flow due to external loads and, hence, representing an effective starting configuration for the optimization process. In this context, the concept of parametric design is perfectly integrated. Indeed, parametric design is an approach that employs algorithmic processes to generate multiple and complex solutions, among the variation of such parameters according to which the algorithm generates a great number of solutions, potentially unexpected in the phase of algorithm writing. So, it allows the designer to explore a wide range of alternative solutions, whose effectiveness, however, is strictly related to the designer’s ability to conceive generative structural models. Downstream this brief discussion, it is easy to understand how parametric design perfectly integrates with structural optimization processes, as powerful tools for the preliminary design of complex structures.
The mini symposium welcomes contributions regarding techniques and tools for the design optimization and parametric design of structures and their use to different types of structural typologies. These may include, but are not limited to, form finding, shape, topology and size optimization techniques, genetic algorithms, grid-shells, diagrid systems, tall buildings etc…