The purpose of the proposed research is to further the industry's understanding on the balance between adaptability and optimisation of steel frame building structures. Without research and clear guidance on this topic, practising engineers are unaware and unaligned on optimal routes to minimising the material usage and, by extension, carbon emissions, and designing for adaptive reuse of the structures they are tasked to design (Orr, 2018; Densley Tingley & Davison, 2011).
With a heightened awareness of sustainability and reducing carbon emissions, enforced at an international level with commitments such as the Paris Agreement (2015) and at an industry level with Engineers Declare (2019), this research would help explore a critical question in the road to Net Zero (Poole, 2020), one which many industry representatives have started to ask themselves (Institution of Structural Engineers, 2018).
The current industry mentality being pushed forward is to optimise for use now and develop adaptation strategies for future changes in use or loading (Watson, 2020). This mentality should be questioned and reviewed within this research, with an aim to develop solutions for industry that achieve both adaptability and optimisation together (Field, 2020).