Academic Awards 2024 booklet

19 Parametric Design of a Watchtower In pursuing innovative structural design, the Structural Engineering and Design unit proposed an assignment; the parametric design and structural verification of a 50-meter-tall watchtower in Roermond. In this thesis, you will find the design process of said watchtower being used as a foundation to explore the possibilities of parametric structural design; a design method that allows great control over parameters that are used as blocks to build the design. Changing these parameters creates an infinite number of unique variants that adhere to the original vision and boundary conditions of the design. After evaluating these variants, they are assessed on a range of load combinations such as self-weight, wind-, snow- and live-loads. These external loads are converted to internal forces using FEM software. The extreme scenarios are exported, from which the internal forces and deflections of the most critical structural elements are derived and checked manually to adhere to the Dutch building code. By employing a parametric workflow, the integration of both technical and design requirements into design tools frees the designer and engineer from the constant need to validate the design. This approach allows for flexibility in conceptualization as well as facilitating the development of preliminary designs with effortless modification.