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<doi>ISEC.res.2020.7(1).AAE-14</doi>
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<article-title>
 ARCHITECTURAL POTENTIALITY OF FREE-FORM STRUCTURES
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ANAS HAMEED<sup>1</sup>, HODA AL-ALWAN<sup>1</sup>, and NAZAR OUKAILI<sup>2</sup>
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<sup>1</sup>Dept of Architectural Engineering, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
 <br/><sup>2</sup>Dept of Civil Engineering, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
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<title>ABSTRACT</title>
<p>Contemporary architecture has witnessed a new innovative trend in design
 characterized by the creation of interesting free-flowing structures that reflect
 expressiveness of form and design, as well as the uniqueness of structure and
 approaches of construction. These fascinating structures are often perceived as
 landmarks that blend harmoniously into their surroundings. In the last two decades,
 parametric design and advanced computational tools, with prefabrication and
 construction techniques, enabled architects and engineers to explore new materials and
 methods to create such impressive structures, breaking the obsolete ways of thinking.
 Several examples of free-form structures lack obviously to explore architectural
 potentialities, that enrich the intention of architect, are still unformulated. The main
 objective of the present paper includes a conceptual proposal exploring the
 architectural potentiality of the free-form structures, focusing on form-finding
 possibilities through optimizing both the geometry and the mass of the structure, to
 generate configurations that ensure self-supported forms with stable force equilibrium.
 The paper introduces two simplified analytical methods to achieve the efficiency of the
 free-form architectural structures: the first depends on using extra materials to
 strengthen surfaces (such as grid shell system), and the second includes changing the
 geometry to achieve high “strength-to-weight” ratio (such as folding or conical self
 supports). By applying these methods, it is possible to explore various form-finding
 possibilities that contribute to the generation of characteristic landmarks with
 impressive structures.</p>
<p><italic>Keywords: </italic>Free-flowing structure, Landmarks, Form-finding, Optimization, Shell
 system, Space system.</p>
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<hpdf>AAE-14</hpdf>
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