IASS hosts annual symposium in Barcelona
Between the 7-10 October 2019, The International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) hosted the organisation’s annual symposium in Barcelona, Spain. This particular conference represented the IASS 60th Anniversary Symposium and 8th International Conference on Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures.

This year’s principal subject focus was ‘form and force’ covering all aspects related to material, design, computation, construction, maintenance, history, environmental impact and sustainability of shell, spatial, tension and inflatable structures in all fields of application. A competition for innovative pavilions was also hosted at the 2019 IASS Symposium, attracting a significant number of impressive entries.
The symposium represented an early opportunity for our university to present plans for the IASS 2020 conference, which will be hosted here on campus in August next year. This event will also run in conjunction with the 7th Surrey International Conference on Spatial Structures. The 2020 event will be held with the motto “inspiring the next generation” reflecting the IASS and our university’s commitment to education within this field.
With the completion of IASS 2019, the symposium was formally handed over to our university ahead of the 2020 conference. Dr Alireza Behnejad, Head of the 2020 Organising Committee said:
It is a real privilege to see the IASS symposium return to the University of Surrey and join forces with the 7th International Conference on Spatial Structures. With the University’s long-standing heritage in spatial structures research, as well as in hosting the conference series, we are delighted to welcome colleagues across the world to attend. With over 30 countries represented on the 2020 Symposium’s Scientific Committee alone, this will be a diverse, intellectually stimulating and exciting occasion.