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Structural aluminium in architecture – The history and future of aluminium as

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Structural aluminium in architecture – the history and future of
aluminium as a structural material

S.H. Dyvik, B. Manum, J. H. Mork

Department of Architecture and Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
M. Luczkowski
Department of Department of Structural Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
Norway

ABSTRACT:

Aluminium as a structural material is favourable in many applications, however, aluminium in

architecture is seldom structural. Aluminium benefits from being durable, corrosion resistant and
light weight, but challenges regarding fire protection, high embodied energy and high costs makes
it less favourable. In addition, lower strength than steel often favours the latter for structural use.
With new manufacturing technology and development in digital design tools, new applications of
structural aluminium can bring new relevance to the material, developing new structural systems,
designs or workflows. This paper presents important stages in history of aluminium, from the
invention of the industrial material towards the use of structural aluminium in architecture. A
wide range of architectural and structural aluminium applications is presented along with current
possibilities and the future potential of structural aluminium in architecture.

1 INTRODUCTION

Aluminium was first identified in 1808 by Humphry Davy and purely isolated in 1827. An
industrial method of aluminium production was invented in France in 1854, yet 30 years passed
before the material became widely available. The Hall-Heroult process for production was in-
vented in 1886 and was followed by the Bayer process for bauxite refinement in 1887. The first
example in a building is the sheets covering the San Gioacchino’s church in Rome from 1887.
Since then aluminium has been continuously tested for new applications in all industries, how-
ever, in architecture, aluminium is seldom structural.
Section 2 describes properties for aluminium as a structural material. Section 3 describes struc-
tural applications of aluminium in other industries. Section 4 describes general uses of aluminium
in architecture. Section 5 presents the history of structural aluminium in architecture through a
wide range of buildings. Section 6 discusses a future potential through digital fabrication.

2 STRUCTURAL ALUMINIUM

In this paper, structural aluminium means aluminium applied in the load-bearing structure. This
paper seeks primarily cases where aluminium is the main load-bearing structure. Other materials
are however usually used in combination with aluminium, for instance steel bolts, concrete foun-
dations, and steel or timber members. In building cases where steel is used for the primary struc-
ture and aluminium still plays a central role, this is stated, and the case is included.
Aluminium alloys are classified in series 1xxx to 9xxx according to the major alloying ele-
ments. With respect to fabrication, we can distinguish between cast alloys and wrought alloys.
While the cast alloys are re-melted for casting, the wrought alloys are further treated through hot
or cold rolling. The first digit defines the major alloying element, with usually less than 5% of the
weight in wrought alloys and 5% or higher in cast alloys. The alloying primarily increase strength,
but also affect fabrication, corrosion resistance and toughness. The alloy also affects if it is Heat-
treatable (T) or Work-hardenable (H). Heat treatment provides strength and includes heating up
to 450-530 °C, tempering and ageing. The ageing is either at room temperature or with 120-180
°C heating (artificial ageing). Heat-treatment can be done before and after fabrication, but any
heating between 200 and 350 °C will generally cause the strengthening effects to disappear.
The combination of work-hardening, heat treatment and ageing provide classifications T1-T12.
The Work-hardenable alloys are classified H1x-H4x. One of the most common alloys is the all-
purpose 6061-T6, which is a magnesium-silicon alloy at heat treated and artificially aged stage.
The structural properties for aluminium depend on alloys, heat treatment and hardening. The
average density (2700 kg/m3) is approximately one-third of steel (7850 kg/m3), and the average
Youngs modulus of (68500 N/mm2) is also approximately one-third of steel (206000N/mm2).

Table 1. Taxonomy of fabrication techniques for aluminium:

Pre-fabrication:
Ingot casting, Sheet rolling
Additive: Joining: Forming: Subtractive:
Casting, Printing Welding, Bonding Bending, Rolling, Extruding Cutting, Holing, Machining
Post-Fabrication:
Heat Treatment, Anodizing, Surface finishing

Several fabrication techniques are available for manufacturing aluminium (Table 1). For most
projects and products, a combination of several stages is necessary. The making of the Emeco
Chair 10-06 is described as a 77-step fabrication process, including heat treatments and finishing
(Eames, 2000). According to Mazzolani can structural aluminium be favourable when benefitting
from the following: Lightness, for simple assembly and construction, transportation, reduced
loads for foundations, and reduced physical labour; Corrosion resistance, for reduced mainte-
nance and performance in corrosive and chemically aggressive environments; and Functionality
of extruded shapes, for improved geometric properties of cross sections (Mazzolani, 2003).
Aluminium has however several characteristics that, compared to steel, makes it less favoura-
ble. The low Youngs modulus makes instability more critical, embodied energy is among the
highest of all structural materials, high thermal conductivity must be handled along with large
thermal expansion, and it is generally costlier (Mazzolani, 2004). In a Norwegian context, the
embodied energy can turn out more favourable, because aluminium is produced with hydropower.
Other challenges, however, must be solved by the designer. A major challenge is aluminium
structures exposed to fire protection, which leads to reduced strengths at moderately elevated
temperatures (175°C to 350°C) and therefore requires fire protection (Maljaars et al., 2010).

3 STRUCTURAL APPLICATIONS OF ALUMINIUM

In 1891 the first aluminium boat, a 1000-pound boat for Lake Zurich, was built by Messrs
Esscher Wyss & Co in Switzerland. Several boats were built this decade: a 33ft sailboat in
France (1893); a 60ft torpedo boat in England (1893); two 42ft slops for surveys of the Niger
River (1893); and several 18ft boats for the Walter Wellmann Polar Exhibition (1894). The 55ft
express cruiser Diana II (1931) was built with a new aluminium-magnesium alloy in England.
The 990ft SS United States (1951) was built in aluminium for a better power to weight ratio.
With over 2000 tons, it was the most extensive use of aluminium in any project at its time. Du-
rability in extremely corrosive environments together with lightweight is extremely valuable
and provides several offshore uses too. Aluminium is used in helidecks, walkways, telescopic
gangways, stair towers, and modules, like living quarters, office and storage. Modules are typi-
cally made from welded frames clad with extruded panels and insulated on the interior.
Aluminium was introduced to aerospace in 1893 when an unsuccessful aluminium airship
was built by inventor David Schwarz. The famous fabric-covered Zeppelin airships (1900) were
most commonly with frames of the copper alloy Duralumin. During World War I, the Germans
produced Duralumin for 80 airships (Sanders, 2001). The Junkers F13 aircraft (1913) by Hugo
Junkers was built with a Duralumin fuselage, becoming was the first all-metal aircraft. The
monocoque airship ZMC-2 (1929) used corrosion resistant sheets called Alclad. Aircraft pro-
duction expanded in the 1930s for military and commercial use, was produced in large numbers
during world war II. Aluminium is for many aircraft models by far the most used material, with
around 80% composition in commercial models like the Boeing 747, MD-11and DC-10 (Starke
and Staley, 1996).
Aluminium found its way to the car industry too. The first full body car was the Durkopp
Sportscar (1899). It was followed by Benz (1901) who used aluminium in the engine, Bugatti
(1908) which had sand castings and formed sheets in the body and Pierce Arrow (1917) with body
castings (Runge, 2018). The British Land Rover Series I (1948) were all made with a steel chassis
and aluminium body. In 1961 Land Rover produced a V-8 engine block with aluminium cylinders.
Cast engine blocks stands today for more than half of the aluminium used in cars. In the late
1960s, casting improvements caused aluminium alloy wheels to replace magnesium. A recent
focus on Lightweighting for fuel efficiency has favoured aluminium car bodies, leading to the
first mass-produced aluminium body in the Audi A8 (1994). The A8 is made from extrusions,
formed sheets and castings (Hirsch, 2014).
The earliest extent aluminium bridge is the Arvida bridge (1950) in Quebec, Canada. Alumin-
ium is favourable in road- and footbridges when the site is inaccessible for maintenance, like in a
distant location or over a busy road. Movable or deployable bridges also benefit from being light-
weight. Swedish company SAPA developed an extruded bridge decking system that was first used
in Billingsfors (1987). The system is used for new builds and conversions and is mounted directly
to primary or secondary beams. The Sabetjohk pedestrian bridge (2011) by Ghilardi+Hellsten
was designed with a triangular aluminium tube space frame. The bride spans 53m and weighs
four tons. It was prefabricated close to the site and lifted to the canyon with helicopter.

4 ALUMINIUM IN ARCHITECTURE

Twenty-five per cent of aluminium produced worldwide is used in the building industry. Du-
rability, lightness and formability are important factors for using aluminium, but as an architec-
tural material it has qualities beyond pure practical properties. In mechanical engineering, the
precision is often the most important factor, but from a design perspective, a beautiful surface can
be uneven and unprecise. Aluminium can be brushed roughly or polished to extreme reflectivity.
Cast products can take the form or texture of its mould. In addition to its durability, aluminium is
often a preferred façade material because of its industrial precision which can demonstrate a cor-
porate or futuristic feeling. Aluminium might be cold and sharp because of the precision and its
ability to transfer heat, but together with a warmer material, like timber, it might just create a
perfect contrast between natural and industrial. Knowing something is made of aluminium might
create a feeling of lightness, but the architectural perspective of lightness must not be confused
with slenderness. Compared to steel, a structural aluminium element could end up being lighter
in mass, whilst have a larger cross-section and therefore be perceived heavier.

One of the earliest uses in a building was in the Isabella, Monadnock and Venetian buildings,
where cast aluminium was used for finishing of stairs, railings and elevators, presented at the
Chicago World fair in 1893 (Ashby, 1999). The panels covering the semi-cupolas at the church
of San Gioacchino (1897) in Rome, Italy is considered the first architectural use of aluminium
(Lane, 1992). Other early uses are found in two of the most famous New York skyscrapers: the
Chrysler building (1930) and the Empire state building (1931) and its incorporated aluminium
spandrels (Alen, 1978).
Aluminium cladding is today a major use, taking advantage of lightweight and durability. Fa-
cades and solar shadings are used for the same reason, adding little weight to the load-bearing
structure. Cladding is commonly made from rolled sheets, but castings and extrusions are also
used. SANAA used a highly polished ceiling and roofing in their Serpentine Pavilion (2009) to
reflect the sky and park around and in the Louvre Lens (2012) they used anodized and a more
roughly polished aluminium in the façade, to create a blurred and unfocused reflection of the
surroundings. The doubly curved structure of Museum Soumaya (2011) by Fernando Romero is
clad with hexagonal aluminium tiles. The Philharmonie de Paris (2015-) is clad with bird shaped
façade tiles in various shades.
The modern extrusion process was developed in the 1920s and was a key point in commercial-
izing aluminium as a material. in this period, aluminium was tested in mullions and windows
among other uses because the lightweight could reduce transportation and erection costs (Ashby,
1999). The first aluminium window frames in the UK were installed in the early 1930s and were
copies of steel casement (Lane, 1992). Extruded profiles have been developed to incorporate de-
tails like screw ports and interlocking devices, and grooves for thermal insulation, weather-strip-
ping and condensation channels.
The first recorded building constructed with an aluminium curtain wall is the Equitable Savings
& Loan building (1948) in Portland by Pietro Belluschi (Ashby, 1999). The Esplanade (1950) in
Chicago by Mies van der Rohe was early with its continuous aluminium and glass curtain wall.
Prefabricated curtain walls hung on the load-bearing structure are a common way of cladding,
and manufactures, like Reynaers Aluminium, provides ranges of curtain wall systems. With large
glazing subject to wind loads and self-weights up to several kilonewtons, the curtain wall itself
can be considered a structural system.

5 STRUCTURAL ALUMINIUM IN ARCHITECTURE

A study of structural aluminium applications in architecture has identified buildings and build-
ing systems with structural applications of aluminium. A limitation of the study is the fact that
there are many projects where the material did not matter to the architect or the author. Some
projects use the term light metal to describe its structure without being more specific. Many pro-
jects were described with steel or metal structure in one source and aluminium in another. Two
distinct building categories are found in the mapping of structural aluminium projects : (1) 1930s-
1960s: Prefabricated Aluminium Housing; (2) From the 1950s: Aluminium Dome Building Sys-
tems. Table 2 shows main motivations or justifications for using structural aluminium in architec-
ture derived from the properties presented in section 2.

Table 2. Motivation or justifications for using structural aluminium in architecture

Lightness Durability Design-driven Industry-driven
Transportation Maintenance Material interest Material research
Movable Distant location Visual appearance State projects
Temporary Mass production

The iconic Aluminaire house (1931) marks the beginning of structural aluminium in architec-
ture. It was designed by Albert Frey and Lawrence Kocher and planned for mass production, but
never produced in series. Although it was made to display aluminium’s potential in buildings, as
the name suggests, the structure was made from a steel frame with aluminium cladding. Its alu-
minium fixings and bolts were however structural.
Buckminster Fuller presented his idea of the Dymaxion House already in 1929 and was com-
missioned by the US government to design low-cost housing for troupes in 1940. The resulting
Dymaxion Deployment unit (1941) was a circular structure of corrugated steel sheets. The Butler
Manufacturing Company who produced them used to make corn silos. In 1944 Fuller took the
chance to complete his original idea. With the Beech Aircraft Factory, he formed Fuller Houses
Inc. and finally presented The Dymaxion House II in 1947. The house was lifted from the ground,
and hung from a central steel mast, with cladding and substructures of aluminium.
In 1942 Raphael Soriano designed a mobile aluminium folding house for the Consolidated
Vultee Aircraft Factory (CONVAIR). He was amongst other architects invited to the aircraft fac-
tories (Jackson, 1990). Whitney R. Smith developed the Plyluminium House (1942) based on
concepts from monocoque war structures. Don and Doris Palmer proposed prefabricated alumin-
ium roof and wall panels in their competition entry for Post-War Living Competition in 1943
(Jackson, 1989).
Thousands of houses were built under the Veteran’s Emergency Housing Program in the US
after World War II. The program stated that a large number of metal prefabricated houses should
be built, divided equally between steel and aluminium (Remington, 1947). The Lincoln Houses
Corp (1946) offered 2- and 3-bedroom houses, from honeycomb patterned plastics with alumin-
ium sheeting (Carr, 1947). A two-inch panel had great insulation properties and had a load carry-
ing capacity of a brick wall. CONVAIR created houses funded by the governments Guarantee
Market program. Designed by Henry Dreyfuss and Edward Barnes, the construction was a card-
board honeycomb core between aluminium sheets used for aeroplane bulkheads. Two prototypes
were built, and the remaining is known as the Fleet House (1947) after company owner Rueben
Fleet (Cobbers, 2010).
England also faced a housing crisis after World War II. With an expanding aircraft industry,
soon out of work, and a stock of 100.000 tons of scrap aluminium from aircraft, The Bristol Aer-
oplane Company Limited was commissioned to prefabricate houses (Finnimore, 1985). The 62m2
AIROH house was prefabricated in four sections. The wall frames were filled with air entrained
grout to provide insulation, and together with an interior wall, the outer walls carried an alumin-
ium roof truss. Over 50000 identical houses were built, however, the construction cost was almost
the double of alternatives in other materials (Finnimore, 1985).
In 1950, The Ministry of Civil Aviation appointed L.E.Ward to design three aluminium hangars
at Heathrow airport. The 1277m2 hangars were made of aluminium arch-trusses connected with
steel bolts and aluminium cladding. The innovative use was described as future for aircraft hang-
ars. (Ward and A.M.I, 1953). The dome of discovery (1951) was a temporary exhibition dome by
architect Ralph Tubbs, Powell and Moya. The aluminium space trusses spanned 111m and were
supported by a steel ring girder. Another aluminium hangar was built for the de Havilland Comet
Test Flight Hangar (1953) by James M Monro & Son.
Alcoa developed a catalogue house called the Care-Free Home in 1957. Designed by Architect
Charles M. Goodman, with aluminium in appliances, exterior surfaces, doors, windows and clad-
ding. The structure was aluminium clad wooden columns. In 1960, Raphael Soriano and Alcoa
developed Modular Plan Assembly Structures. Eleven all-aluminium houses were prefabricated
in Los Angeles and built on the island Maui, Hawaii. However, Soriano did not manage to bring
it further, and only the Grossman house (1965) was built in the US (Jackson, 1990).
Designer and architect Jean Prouvé experimented with metals ranging from furniture and small
buildings to a 30000m2 exhibition hall. He developed a steel and timber structure “Demountable
house” in 1944 under commission from the Ministry of Reconstruction and Town Planning for
war victims in Lorraine. They proved successful and awarded him the Ministry’s gold medal in
1947. The same year he completed his workshop in Maxewille, where he did thorough studies of
aluminium as a structural material. In 1949, Aluminium Français (AF) bought into the Atelier
Jean Prouvé, and an AF subsidiary, Studal, was given exclusive sales rights.
Prouvé developed a construction system for mass production with iconic porticos and load
bearing aluminium wall panels for the Maison Tropicale. Three Tropical houses were realized, a
lodging for a school headmaster in Niamey, Niger (1949), the office aluminium company in Braz-
zaville, Congo (1951), and a residence for the same firm. In Congo, the structures were slightly
larger than in Niger and the load-bearing elements were made of steel, whereas it in Niger was
made of aluminium. According to Bergdoll (Bergdoll et al., 2008), the concept never came into
mass production because it was too strange looking and more expensive than local building tech-
niques. A total of 14 houses in a similar system, Maison Standard metropole, was completed
outside Paris in 1952. Known as the Meudon houses, they also had steel as frames and aluminium
panels (Cobbers, 2010).
AF became the major stakeholder in Atelier Prouvé in 1952 and made him unwillingly resign
as director in chase of larger profits in 1953 (Huppatz, 2010). Despite the conflicts, in 1954 he
designed the Centenary Aluminium Pavilion, celebrating 100 years of industrial aluminium. The
pavilion really took advantage of his metalworking knowledge and skills. The 11m long beams
acted as roofing, gutters and structure. They were connected at cast aluminium brackets and met
at columns that served as gutters and mullions for the curtain wall. The pavilion was rebuilt twice,
first in Lille and later in Villepinte. A decade later, he did two more aluminium structures: the
Youth Centre in Ermont (1966) made from aluminium and plywood panels with polyurethane
foam (Avermaete, 2013) and the Grenoble Exhibition Centre (1967) (together with his son Claude
Prouvé).
Architect Toyo Ito did his first completed project, Aluminium House (1971) with aluminium
cladding, and continued to test aluminium wrapping in the Silver Hut (1984), Bar Nomad (1986)
and Tower of Winds (1986). In the 1990s, his reputation led the Japanese Aluminium Association
(JAA) to engage him in a series of prototypes on the structural use of aluminium (Buntrock, 2016).
Ito’s collaboration with JAA, industry partners, and engineer Masato Araya, lead to several build-
ings with structural aluminium. The first completed project, the House in Sakurajosui (2000) had
however several problems. It was costly and time-consuming to build, and uncomfortable because
of thermal bridging and condensation. The development of the specific extrusions was possible
thanks to support from the aluminium industry. The structure probed efficiently in assembly, three
months for an 86m2 house. The structure comprised of extruded beams and a tube-encased cruci-
form column. It had an integrated skin and structure, neatly solving structure and water resistance
in the welded roofing. Fire proofing was solved with interior gypsum cladding.

Many of the buildings with structural aluminium are made from a building system for large
spans, rather than individual solutions. The auditorium Hawaiian Village Dome (1956) was built
by Henry Kaiser based on a system designed by Buckminster Fuller (Cushing, 2014). The 44m
span dome was made from 575 brake-formed aluminium panels, connected with bolts at a cast
node and later bolted along flanges (Kaiser, 1957). It was followed by The Virginia Beach Con-
vention Center (1957), designed by Oliver and Smith. Fuller and Kaiser then got several contracts
for domes, and their dome system was developed into a product called the Kaiser Aluminium
Dome. Fuller also patented the Octet Truss (1959) which is the basis for many space frames today
(Fuller, 1961). Since 1964 the manufacturer Temcor has built over 7500 domes worldwide (Tem-
cor, 2018). One of the most unique was Antarctic Sum (1975) at the South Pole. The uninsulated
space was designed for snow loads of 3kN. The largest Temcor dome with 126.5m span is the
Spruce Goose dome (1982) that once housed the flying boat H-4 Hercules. In addition to the
mentioned Kaiser domes, Octet Truss and Temcor, other aluminium based dome and space frame
systems are Octatube’s TUBALL, BACO Triodetic and Sphereobat (Hanaor, 1995).

The Yacht House (1983) by Richard Horden Associates was inspired by his catamaran and
used steel and aluminium frames for prefabrication. Horten later designed the Ski Haus (1991), a
315kg transportable shelter for alpine skiers, and the Micro Compact House (2012), a lightweight
transportable home. The IBM travelling pavilion (1984) by Renzo Piano Building workshop was
a travelling exhibition structure. The three-point arches with cast aluminium nodes finger jointed
and glued to timber bars could easily be (dis-)assembled.
The Lords Media Centre (1999) by Future Systems was fabricated at a shipyard. The seamless
exterior aluminium is a semi-monocoque shell, with ribs like a ship hull. The Dutch aluminium
Centre (2001) by Micha de Haas was the result of a competition by the Dutch aluminium industry.
The one-story all-aluminium structure is lifted on a forest of aluminium columns. The Serpentine
pavilion (2001) by Daniel Libeskind is made by aluminium riveted frames and sheet cladding.
The architecture office Snøhetta was together with Siemens and Hydro from 2003 developing
a modular aluminium housing system. The structure consisted of columns and beams in a 4.8m
by 4.8m grid. The system called, Løvetann, was planned for 20 houses but cancelled after selling
nine of the houses because of issues related to costs and embodied energy (Sprenger, 2006). How-
ever, a kindergarten in Bjørnrudskog (2007) was realized with the same system.
Kiernan Timberlake’s Loblolly House (2006) and Cellophane House (2008) were designed
with Bosch extruded profiles for simple assembly and disassembly. They used parametric mod-
elling tools to ensure that all the prefabricated elements would fit together.
The tree-hotel (2010) by Tham & Videgaard is a cabin hung on a tree trunk. The structure was
made in two parts from two layers of aluminium profiles, internally clad with timber and exter-
nally with reflective glass. The Jektvik Ferry Quay (2013) by Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk is made by
aluminium frames in prefabricated modules. The cladding has been inverted, with the structural
glazing mounted on the inside, while the outside is clad with purlins and a layer of polyester.

6 DIGITAL FABRICATION AND ALUMINIUM

Most of the fabrication techniques mentioned depend on large volumes to be economically

feasible. Section 5 mentioned mass-produced housings that did not get into mass production, and
some more successful mass-produced building systems for larger spans. This could now apply
also for more custom structures. The machines that before made a thousand copies can now make
a thousand unique pieces at almost the same speed and cost. To make this shift in aluminium
structures, it depends on digital parametric modelling, and a production process suitable for low
production volumes, implyting low tool costs and CNC controlled manufacturing or assembly.
The next paragraph describes a few recent examples where aluminium is subject in digital fab-
rication. Digital fabrication combines 3D-modeling or computed aided design with additive and
subtractive manufacturing. The Swiss NCCR Digital Fabrication aims to develop ground-break-
ing technologies for tomorrows construction and discuss the potential as efficient use of produc-
tion resources, material-specific concepts and durability, thanks to the seamless integration of
design and fabrication. (Digital Fabrication, 2018). This leads the way for a fabrication-aware
design or digital tectonic where the architect can define a digital parametric model that incorporate
structural design and fabrication limitations in the design.
In the above-mentioned Dutch Aluminium Centre, cast joints were developed for the Delta
trusses for an exhibition space, and the designer concluded that mass customized cast joints are a
feasible solution for future projects (Eekhout, 2002). Since 2007 Marc Fornes with his company
Theverymany has been working with ultra-thin shell structures that unify skin, support, form and
experience with CNC cut sheets as a structural material (Fornes, 2016). The Nematox façade node
(2010) was developed as an additive manufactured connector for two Alcoa façade systems in
free form envelpoes (Strauß, 2013). A bridge too far (2013) and Stressed Skins (2015) are projects
by Centre for Information Technology in Architecture, using robotic incremental sheet forming
to create doubly curved structural shapes (Nicholas et al., 2016). An automated design to fabrica-
tion for a stadium skin with 3-axis CNC-coined die-punched panels is used for an NFL stadium
(2017) designed by HKS Architects. A digital fabrication course at ETH Zurich built a Digital
metal pavilion in 2017 with nodes cast in 3D printed sand moulds (Meibodi and Dillenburger,
2017), and in 2018 they presented a façade structure made with the same technique.

7 CONCLUSIONS

After World War II, there were several attempts of mass-producing aluminium houses, but only
heavily funded projects like the AIROH houses and the Lincoln Aluminium Homes was success-
ful in the sense that it was mass produced. Since the 1950s several building systems for aluminium
was developed, most of them with space frame or dome configurations. Many of these buildings
still stand, and the building systems are still on the market today. These systems can be considered
successful examples of structural aluminium in architecture. While some ambitious projects have
been sponsored by the aluminium industry to ensure realization, others have been built with an
aluminium structure because of clear advantages in the material. Many structures take advantage
of the materials lightness, but fewer benefits from custom extrusions and durability.
There exist several challenges with structural aluminium, related to costs, low strength (com-
pared to steel), high embodied energy, thermal bridging and fire proofing. For future research, the
authors intend to limit the scope by examining the potential of mass customized structural alu-
minium for free form shells and spatial structures in a search for new visually interesting structural
uses of aluminium.
Aluminium is malleable and easy to machine, and aluminium prove to be suitable for one-off
or low volume production when the tooling costs are low or with use of digital fabrication. By
integration of digital design tools and with manufacturing technology like CNC-machines and 3D
printing, there will be new possibilities for use of structural aluminium through new structural
typologies, new designs or new workflows.

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