Working Group 5: Continuous Shells

Mission

The aim of the WG5 is to support the development of design, modeling, analysis, (de)construction and restoration methods to increase the efficiency, economy and elegance of surface shells. With the advent of new computational methods (eg artificial intelligence), fabrication technologies (eg 3D printing, robotics) and materials (eg meta, self-healing, multi-functional), we believe that continuous shell structures have tremendous potential to tackle challenges related sustainability (eg. net zero, United Nations Guidelines), extreme loading (eg. earthquake, storm surge, wind) and extreme environment (eg. outer space habitation). These new methods, technologies, materials and challenges are core to the mission of some of the other WG’s. Therefor we foresee exciting opportunities to collaborate with many WG in the advancing of WG5 and the IASS mission in general.

Background

Working Group 5 on Concrete Shells was formed in the early 1970s during the second decade of the Association.  Its main accomplishment during that decade was the publication of Recommendations for Reinforced Concrete Shells and Folded Plates (IASS, Madrid, 1979, 66 pp.), a document that influenced a number of subsequent national building codes and was translated into Japanese and Spanish.  The name of the Working Group was subsequently changed to Concrete Shell Roofs.  After a period of inactivity, the efforts of the group were revived in the 1990s by the then chair of the WG, Stefan Medwadowski (also President of the IASS during the 1990s).  In 2022 the Working Group was renamed Continuous Shells to better reflect the WG interests and activities.

Current Objectives

1. Organize sessions at IASS Symposia and Colloquia related to continuous shells.
2. Organize on-line meetings to define and collaborate on topics of interest
3. Seek to support publications that include coverage of continuous shells.
4. Collaborate with other IASS Working Groups o, especially WG18 Life-Cycle Design and Assessment of Shell and Spatial Structures, WG 17 on Historical Spatial Structures, WG 15 Structural Morphology and WG13 Computational Methods.

Recent Activities

1. The WG organized two sessions for IASS 2025 Symposium in Mexico City: one general session on Continuum Shells -  "Recent Advances in Design and Analysis of Continuum Shell Structures", and one co-organized together with WG17 - "Repair and Adaptive Reuse:  The Future of 20th Century Historic Concrete Shells".

2. The WG will be greatly involved in the organization of the next IASS 2026 Symposium joint with IWSS 2026 Conference in Italy, as one of the co-chairs of the WG is also one of the main organizers for 2026.

3. The WG co-organised 2 webinars with WG 17 (Binishells: Beyond the Cupola, June 11th 2024 and Uncovering Heinz Isler Practice, December 7th 2023).  Both webinars were posted on the IASS website for broader dissemination.

Membership

All current members of the Working Group are members of the IASS. The Working Group welcomes additional members who have an interest in the mission and objectives of the group; those IASS members interested should please contact one of the Chairs of the Working Group (Find e-mail addresses in the IASS Directory by logging in).

Further Information for IASS Members