"Technology and Sustainability Applications in Lightweight Structures"

A two day Conference which highlighted the advances and practical use of new technologies, materials and sustainability principles for Lightweight Structures.

Thursday/Friday October 29/30 2009 
The Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Road, Melbourne

Our invited International Speaker was Prof Ian Liddell. Ian is a founder of the respected firm of Buro Happold in the UK. Amongst a raft of completed impressive lightweight structures around the world, perhaps the most well known that Ian designed is the Milleniumm Dome. He is an Honourary Fellow of the Royal Institution of British Architects.

We were also privileged to have two outstanding local Architects agree to give keynote presentations. Daryl Jackson and Patrick Ness are well known to the Melbourne fraternity with a swag of completed projects and current work in the area of lightweight structures and stadia.

Download an updated Program as a PDF File  

28 Entries in the four Categories have been received. Winners were announced at the Conference Dinner.

2009 Conference Sponsors 
         

The LSAA joined with the Specialized Textiles Association in a combined trade expo supported by conference presentations.

The event was held at the Crowne Plaza in the Hunter Valley NSW from May 31 to June 2 2014.

The traditional STA Trade Expo was different in that the Exhibition area was only "opened" from 11am to 2pm. Outside of these times, several parallel Conference Sessions took place.

The LSAA gave a structured and educational series of presentations over two days covering "Tensioned Fabric Structures" - Australian History, Design Principles, Materials, Applications, Basic Engineering Understanding and Lessons to be Learnt.

The presentations by Peter Kneen, Bob Cahill and Peter Lim were very well received.

In particular, feedback from the audience highlighted the knowledge gained relating to the large forces involved both in fabric prestress levels and the magnitude of wind loads. Several example where extremely large deflections under moderate wind demonstrated issues that need to be addressed by the shadecloth industry.

LSAA 2013 Conference "Touching the Earth Lightly" Wrap Up

The theme of the conference was "Touching the Earth Lightly"

This conference will look at the most efficient use of materials & resources to have a marked effect on our planet, our lives and our future.  We want to help get people thinking about building better, building for the environment and living lightly on the planet.

Lightweight structures can not only be light they can be relocatable, reusable, recyclable and offer many sustainable advantages for architects, engineers and developers.