This paper discusses the project StructuralComponents 6, a continuation of the ongoing project StructuralComponents which focuses on the development of computational tools for conceptual building design beginning with Breider [1]. The goal of StructuralComponents 6 is to develop a tool for the conceptual design of mid-rise concrete buildings laterally supported by shear walls. The tool allows a user to digitally construct a prismatic, rectangular building design with a custom number and arrangement of shear walls and performs structural validation of any given design in terms of stiffness, strength and stability. The project in split into two main phases. 1) A calculation method is developed that can be applied to a flexible number and arrangement of shear walls, assuming the shear walls are connected by infinitely rigid floors. 2) The tool is implemented using Python and Grasshopper. A case study is performed to determine the applicability of the tool to real-life building design. It is concluded that the rigid-floor calculation method is adequate for the design of buildings with minimal out-of-plane floor effects (i.e. buildings with pre-cast floors) and minimal torsional effects. Through the case study, it is shown that the tool can be successfully applied to a building with a complex arrangement of shear walls. @en

This paper presents a novel approach to modelling and documenting design knowledge: to use parametric technology to explicitly store knowledge which exists in a group of people (such as a company), so that it can be reused over many projects and grow over time when more projects are designed. This approach has been applied and tested on a test case of common concrete viaducts. The outcome constitutes the first iteration of the development of a parametric viaduct design platform, aimed for architects and structural engineers. The motivation was to counter the fragmentation of the Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) industry, where each discipline encapsulates different knowledge areas, which results in miscommunication and the loss of valuable information and time. The suggested methodology aims at combining the BIM principles [1] with the concepts of parametric and associative design, as well as visual programming [2] to develop a common design platform for the architect and the structural engineer. Such a platform ensures that both disciplines are working on the same design and merges their different knowledge areas into one model. The knowledge model evolves from a top-down UML diagram into a user-friendly, parametric platform for viaduct design implemented in Dynamo [3].@en