A civil engineer's blog: ottobre 2014

martedì 28 ottobre 2014

antifragility (the next thing?)

What if cities, urban developments and structures could not only recover, but also grow stronger after adverse events (floods, earthquakes, terrorist attacks?).

What if they gained instead of suffering from everyday disorder?

Is over optimization, otherwise efficient for normal design purposes, a pitfall in our ever-changing society?

Is seeking the utmost efficiency an utopia?

Are we lacking redundancies?

How technology and modern design and construction methods can facilitate the above?

Can "antifragile design" by architects, engineers and urban planners, enhance a design for urban/disaster resilience?

Starting from Nicolas Taleb’s interesting book “Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder” I recently read (again), these are only some of the questions that came into my mind when I prepared two lessons for a safety-engineering course on risk analysis and robustness.

Is antifragility the next thing? Judging from web references and conference announcements this year, this certainly seems to be the case...

word cloud

Fragile VS Resilient VS Antifragile

Risk analysis for fire: the case of civil structures from Konstantinos Gkoumas

Structural robustness: issues, numerical modelling and future trends from Konstantinos Gkoumas

8th (yet, my 3rd)

I just returned back to Athens from the 8th Hellenic National Conference of Steel Structures, which this year was held in Tripoli (in Peloponnese) on October 2-4.
http://eeme.ntua.gr/8HNCSS/en/
The conference (the third I am attending) was very interesting, and I had the chance to meet old friends and make new ones.
I also had the chance to give a talk on Diagrid tall buildings.

Earlier today we had a technical tour on the construction site of the Tsakona Arch Bridge, which, with a length of 390m, is one of the world's longest multi-span arch bridge.
I had the chance to take many photos, both during the conference and during the technical tour.
On my way back to Athens I visited Nafplio, a town which was the capital of the First Hellenic Republic, from the start of the Greek Revolution in 1821 until 1834.