Abstract

Concrete materials and structures have been in the spotlight regarding an urging need to decarbonise as part of the holistic effort to achieve net zero in the built environment by 2050. Traditionally, the concrete construction industry has been operating in a fragmented way, under which within the design space, materials specifiers and structural engineers would operate in isolation whilst similar was the case for collaboration between designers, contractors and manufacturers. Nevertheless, there is much potential that remains untapped from lack of interdisciplinary collaboration across the value chain. While several opportunities exist for collaboration improvement towards efficiency and carbon reduction in materials and structures, this paper focuses on design aspects that could be improved through an interdisciplinary approach. Through certain case studies, it is demonstrated why is important to apply total design approaches, combining structural optimisation with improved materials specification and how such practice can lead to significant savings in structural embodied carbon.