‘Connecting to Tomorrow’

In the modern world of lightweight structures, we often find ourselves at the crossroads of architectural trends. Digital transformation offers us ground-breaking pathways to innovate on novel platforms in strange new ways, with the rise of AI asking us to rethink all we knew.  A climate-crisis-driven focus on sustainability has asked us to consider our impact on the world around us through smart materials and biophilic urbanism.  And new human-centric approaches to our fields have offered up frameworks spanning vast disciplinary bounds to tackle our world’s most pressing problems.

Today’s world must seize hold of all these new trends. Held on September 12 and 13 in Melbourne Australia, the LSAA 2024 Conference and Design Awards will spearhead the industry’s approach to all these vital challenges under the banner of ‘Connecting to Tomorrow’.

The theme seeks to encompass all the connections that will make up tomorrow’s lightweight structures fields – connections to technology, to environment and to each other. Featuring the world leaders in the field of lightweight structures, this conference stands at an inflection point, seizing the vast opportunity to deal with these crucial issues as we build tomorrow’s world, today.  

The LSAA was founded at the University of NSW back in 1981.

The recent Conferences have been hosted at a number of Universities in Melbourne (Monash and Swinburne) and UTS in Sydney.

Swinburne, University of Melbourne and RMIT are creating the Inaugral Student Design Award at the 2024 event.

Details of the Design Brief, Rules for Teams and the delivery product will be added to this article. (March 22 2024)

LSAA Members and non-members may enter (different fees apply).

The 2024 Awards are for completed structures since May 2022 and are open to companies or individuals who have acted as the main designer, fabricator or installer. 
The "project" may be part of larger facility - e.g. an Atrium, Facade, Entrance, Roof.

However only one entry per project will be considered.

Draft 2024 RULES and ENTRY FORMS can be downloaded. Closing Date is August 14 2024

Bookings and registrations are expected to be available by April 10, 2024

The event has been posted on Eventbrite

Direct Link to the LSAA 2024 Conference

The Venue is in the AMDC (Advanced Manufacturing and Design Centre), Room 301

The LSAA 2024 Conference will be held in the excellent facilities at Swinburne University (Hawthorn Campus)

Reaching the venue is easy by suburban Metro train lines (nearest station is Glenferrie about 250 metres walk) or via the fantastic, world famous trams going along Burwood Road.

Specifically we will be in the AMDC Building Room 301.

The following are some images of the Swinburne Campus and the area where Sponsors will set up displays and the most important coffee / tea outlets will be located.

When you come to the LSAA 2024 Conference and Design Awards jointly held with Swinburne University, take the time to appreciate "Vibrant Melbourne".

Melbourne is a rapidly growing city - voted the most liveable city for many years.

In recent years there has been an enormous amount of construction in the areas of the Docklands, Spencer Streets and Southbank.

There are a number of lightweight structures in and around Melbourne.

There are the roof structures at the major sports stadia - Tennis Centre (Rod Laver and Margaret Court Arenas), the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), the Rectangular AAMI Stadium, the Etihad Stadium and the Southern Cross train station.

The Victorian Arts Centre Spire, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl and the nearby Aquatic Centre are other examples.

Smaller tensioned fabric structures can be found throughout Melbourne.

The graphic for the Conference is based on a real image of a radial cable supported and tensioned fabric sports arena. The image is taken directly under the centre of the recently modified Ken Rosewall Arena and the image is credited to Fabritecture.

These forms of roof utilize a minimal amount of material because the structural system places the material in direct tension - the most efficient structural action - compared to heavy beams under bending. All the cables are connected together and radiate to cover the entire roof.