The philosophical basis of Seeing and Touching Structural Concepts

Structural concepts are fundamentals of civil engineering for students to learn, for lecturers to teach and for engineers to use. Many students however find it difficult to understand structural concepts due to their abstract nature. Seeing and Touching Structural Concepts has been developed as an approach to help civil engineering students gain intuitive (without the need for analysis) understanding of structural concepts taking them from structural elements to whole structures and from theory to practice. The paper explains the philosophical basis of the approach which involves the fundamental ideas and principles underlying the approach and its evolution. This has included the development of over 60 physical models produced in pairs, one with and one without involving a structural concept, to illustrate the effects and the significance of the structural concepts. Over 70 associated cases using structural concepts creatively have been identified from engineering practice. A website, www.structuralconcepts.org, has been developed and two associated books have been published. Five criteria underpinning the approach of Seeing and Touching Structural Concepts are expressed as Seeking new connections, Exploring new meanings, Evolving into intuitive understanding, Making wide and creative applications and Simplicity (SEEMS), which are demonstrated using examples and synthesised case studies.