Anna Stefańska

Warsaw University of Life Sciences | SGGW · Institute of Civil Engineering

Sustainable Development Goals have become a key factor in the design in the twenty-first century. The relationship between the architectural and structural systems is becoming a matter of relevance for sustainable design. The search for minimum material consumption can be seen by drawing inspiration from the solutions found in Nature. The high effi...

Digital fabrication leads architects and structural engineers to modify the design optimisation methodology. The designers, as never before, are facing new technologies developed in the search for new materials based, among others, on wood components and the improvement of manufacturing methods at the same time. In this process, the material and ma...

Contemporary interdisciplinary design requires architects' knowledge and cooperation with such fields as construction, material engineering, fabrication methods, and knowledge in optimisation of the design process, production, and minimisation of used materials and energy. Following the example of other disciplines, contemporary architecture seeks...

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns altered people’s perception of the relationship between indoor and outdoor living spaces, pushing the home balcony concept into new levels of ambiguity. Particularly in European contexts, people’s perspectives on its existence, functions, features, and borders are now unclear territory. Therefore, our study intends t...

Green building is a way to reduce the impact of the building stock on the environment, society, and economy. Despite the significance of a systematic review for the upcoming project, few studies have been conducted. Studies within the eco-friendly construction scope have been boosted in the past few decades. The present review study intends to crit...

The contemporary construction industry is undergoing transformative changes driven by pervasive digitalisation, with building information modelling (BIM) emerging as a pivotal innovation. This paper explores the imperative of incorporating BIM into every new construction project, emphasising its potential to enhance collaboration, streamline proces...

The Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), developed in 2009 through collaboration amongexperts in human thermophysiology, aims to evaluate the relationship between the outdoorenvironment and human well-being. The case study focused on assessing the impact ofshadowing and thermal masses on occupant outdoor thermal comfort as measured by the UTCI.T...

The conventional design of steel structure objects relies on a first-order elastic analysis, where the entire object is treated as a set of individual structural elements requiring time-consuming, semi-empirical design calculations. Such an approach leads to inefficient design time and excessive material consumption and may additionally result in d...

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of outdoor spaces for maintaining physical and mental well-being. However, many urban residents lack private outdoor areas, which led to harmful health consequences during lockdowns. The research project aims to address and solve this issue by developing a physical/digital prototype called “X-TEND” t...

The effects of the climate crisis disproportionately affect people living in densely populated urban areas, presenting a major challenge for the 21 st century. Urban administrators face a significant challenge in implementing sustainable development goals into practice, especially within the constraints of the current infrastructure. This paper eva...

The Special Issue, "The Adaptability of Residential Planning and Design to World-Changing Events," explores innovative approaches to residential design that can effectively respond to short-, medium-, and long-term challenges posed by recent extreme events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflicts, and devastating natural disasters. It provide...

History has witnessed several events with different magnitudes that have served as catalysts for drastic changes in society, impacting people’s lifestyles and reshaping the prevailing civilizational paradigm [...]

The onset of the twenty-first century has ushered in transformations in technical and technological realms, altering the way architecture is perceived. Architecture has shifted from primarily constructed with reinforced concrete to silicon, endowing it with unprecedented durability while rendering it more physically transient and fleeting. This art...

Dear Colleagues, In a world powered by artificial intelligence (AI), urban planning, neighbourhood revitalisation, tactical urbanism, community-led initiatives, transit-oriented development (TOD), green infrastructure, historic preservation districts, pocket parks, complete streets, micro-mobility solutions, local business support, and city manage...

Public spaces serve as central hubs of urban life, a role that becomes even more significant following a period of enforced social isolation. This article identifies the elements responsible for shaping aesthetically pleasing and captivating urban environments that attract people. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to explore what make...

Legislative work on minimizing greenhouse gas emissions becomes one of the issues of the sustainable approach in the architectural and construction sector. An example of such work is Chicago's 2022 Climate Action Plan, where nearly 70% of Chicago's greenhouse gas emissions come from urban environments. While energy consumption in new construction i...

A dynamic development in building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs) has been observed in recent years. One of the manifestations of this trend is the integration of photovoltaic cells with tensile membrane structures, including canopies. Such solutions bring mutual benefits—the roofs provide a potentially large area for the application of photovolta...

In civil engineering, carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites have emerged as a promising alternative to conventional materials. The article provides a comprehensive overview of the application of CFRP composites in various building structural elements and their characteristics and properties, such as their fatigue and corrosion resistanc...

Modern environmental protection standards have a direct impact on the construction and shaping of public space. Designers are increasingly reaching for materials produced via recycling technologies. Waste materials are more readily adopted and used in urban planning and architecture. Current projects in this area are being increasingly designed to...

Thermal waste transformation plants (waste incineration plants) are a strong architectural accent in the existing site context. They often function as power plants or combined heat and power plants, producing heat and/or electricity by recovering energy from flue gases. The main objective of this study was to demonstrate the relationship between th...

In the 21st century, the most advanced digital methods have allowed structure design, analysis and multidirectional optimisation based on multiple parameters. Mathematical algorithms based on proportionality requirements enable the software to create an individual solution for the specified boundary conditions. This is particularly interesting from...

Retrofitting buildings undeniably offers opportunities to lower energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, choosing particular retrofit techniques is complex and needs planning. Several techniques exist for modifying buildings to use nearly zero energy. Chicago is world-famous for its downtown skyscrapers, neighbourhood bungalows and...

There is a strong link between energy recycling and urbanism. Cities are major energy consumers, and as the world's population continues to urbanise, the demand for energy in cities will only increase. At the same time, cities also generate significant waste and unused energy. Energy recycling can help address both of these issues by capturing and...

We are editing a Special Issue entitled “The Adaptability of Residential Planning and Design to World-Changing Events” from the open access journal Buildings from Switzerland (Impact Factor 3.324). Given your interesting work on the theme and related disciplines, we invite you and your colleagues to submit a contribution to this Special Issue. You...

Architecture is a science, which is evident in the change in design. Natural modelling processes characterise the 21st century, and bionics become an inspiration in the creative search for contemporary architecture. Experimental modelling and algorithms to describe structures and evolutionary processes make it possible to optimise materials, like m...

The structural form in the 21st century refers to specific architectural ideas as a strong relationship between ideas, design algorithms, and production processes. Therefore, searching for the relationship between form, function, and structure in the contemporary technological context is essential. The paper analyses the strategies for a holistic u...

The search for the structural form of reticulated roofs is significant in interdisciplinary Architectural Design optimisation. Combining parametric design with structural logic influences the visual perception of the shape by choosing the most suitable technical solutions. Therefore, the divisions of reticulated structures should be determined to p...

The formulation of tasks applies to the transfer of information, analysis, and conclusions on the achievements of architecture based on new solutions in terms of aesthetic, economic, and practical aspects. The investigation process is dedicated to searching for an optimal freeform canopies’ geometry of temporary pavilions, in which parametric tools...

Trends in contemporary architecture are constantly changing the quality of engineering solutions through broadly understood optimization thanks to software advancing and fabrication methods. The possibility of adjusting the material and manufacturing technology to desired aesthetic outcomes, by not only the material usage but also the self-organiza...

Trends in the contemporary architecture sector constantly change the quality of engineering and construction solutions. Broadly understood optimisation processes improve material usage, as well as precision in mass production. Digital fabrication becomes not only a means of aesthetic concepts or architectural models. The central idea of additive te...

The growing need for rational use of natural resources becomes crucial in all sectors of the current economy. Minimizing the use of materials in construction is becoming an important design aspect. One of the interdisciplinary design methods is geometry optimization, which, thanks to modern computational methods, brings the desired material reducti...

The design of unique gridshell forms has become a key factor in effective interdisciplinary designing solutions, both architecturally aesthetic and structurally efficient. Modern bionic tendencies allow designers to implement organic shapes through proportion and mimicking the biological, developmental process by understanding the logic of the stru...

Management of construction projects requires effective and well-organized communication and coordination between all stakeholders as a vital aspect of the successful project. The objective of the study is to analyses the main factors of information and communication technologies incorporation and adoption into the Indian built environment sector. T...

The journal is registered with the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (certificate EL No. FS 77-54077 dated 05/08/2013.). The journal releases 8 issues per year. Publisher: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation. Scientific Editor...

Thanks to the use of advanced digital tools and the achievements of knowledge encompassing numerous fields of science including mathematics, computer science, and even genetics, architects now have the means to create multi-variant design solutions. The quantifiable benefits of interdisciplinary design are increasingly recognized within the field o...

The search for the form optimization of reticulated roof structures is a significant aspect in Architectural Engineering and Construction section. It consists of reflecting the intended aesthetic effect as well as an attempt to choose the most suitable technical solutions. Therefore the divisions of reticulated structures should be determined to pu...

The article discusses the relationship between the design of structural and architectural details in the design of façades of tall European buildings. It characterizes the influence of load-bearing structures on the possibility of hiding or exposing the load-bearing elements. Next, the design of structural and architectural details is discussed dep...

A significant spatial element of the high-rise building is its load-bearing structure. Both concealment and exposure of the load-bearing elements requires deliberate decisions. Their sizes and geometries do not allow them to be located freely or easily "masked". Although in high-rise buildings of the European scale the aesthetic expression can be i...

The design of original gridshell forms has become an increasingly complex process, which aims to search for unique spatial systems which are also effective engineering solutions-both architecturally as well as structurally. The search for synergistic solutions which combine the aesthetics of the form with structural logic is supported by modern bio...

Nowadays architectural taste and the knowledge in fields such as architectural theory and practical abilities are not sufficient for being a good designer. Architects keep discovering multidisciplinary skills helpful in creating advanced designs. The use of digital generative design systems in designing becomes more prevalent-for the first time bei...