The biggest drivers of structural cost and efficiency are often decided in the earliest phase of architectural design.

By the time a structural engineer is brought into a project, the biggest decisions have already been made. We’re talking key architectural and design elements related to layout, spans, openings and overall geometry. These elements directly shape how a structure performs and ultimately, what it costs to build.

This is where efficiency is either built in or designed out.

Structural efficiency starts earlier than you think

Structural efficiency isn’t just about materials or calculations. It’s about how the building is organized from day one.

Floor plan decisions such as where walls align or how open a space is, has a direct impact on how efficiently the structure performs. When these are considered early, the system works naturally and effectively.

When these considerations aren’t taken into account from the beginning, then your project becomes more about editing to solve issues you didn’t think through at the start. These edits add complexities and complexities can be expensive.

Maximum efficiency means thinking through these considerations from the start so that you’re designing in a way that is most optimized to eliminate rework later.

Cost, flexibility, and constructability are all connected

Structural efficiency isn’t only about saving money - though that is often the immediate impact. It also effects:

Design flexibility

As mentioned above, efficient systems give our architects more room to design and iterate without hitting as many structural constraints late in the process, as they otherwise might have.

Design Details

Simpler design details aren't just easier to build but are also something that benefits from being well-coordinated from the beginning with your engineer. This collaboration can help identify those more costly details that may be ‘nice to have’ vs. ‘need to have’, and in turn reduce risk of strained or delayed timelines if issues arise later.

These benefits compound when decisions are made collaboratively, not sequentially.

Early alignment is the difference between friction and flow.

An essential part of the Massey process is the upfront kickoff meeting which includes a top-down design questionnaire. This key step allows both teams to come together and fully align on project goals and expectations, material expression and structural visibility, budget and constructability priorities, design & vision, and pockets of flexibility or non-negotiables.

This step is about upfront collaborative strategy and ensures our team is solving the right problem from day one. You can learn more about our approach to architectural projects here.

Collaboration is the multiplier

If you read our post ‘The One Decision Architects Should Care About Most When Hiring an Engineer’, then you know just how important it is for there to be a strong, collaborative relationship between an architect and an engineer. When architects and structural engineers collaborate early, the structure becomes part of the design conversation, not a constraint applied later.

“Early structural considerations to residential design work always pays off up-and-down the scope, and I have found that the designs that I have been able to collaborate with Dallas and his team through have always sailed the smoothest waters, and extracted the very most opportunity for a legible and beautiful build.” - Keatan Sharp, Sharp Design and Technical Consultation (sharpredesign.com)

This kind of collaboration shouldn’t be viewed as limiting creativity but rather sharpening it. It allows everyone to align on priorities of the project and design with both creativity and practicality in mind.

Our final thought

Structural efficiency cannot be an afterthought and must be considered from day one. The earlier architects and structural engineers come together to align on projects is where the real value lies.