What do you do if your structural engineering projects require more creative thinking?

Any structural engineering projects requires thoughtful planning, regardless of the project's size. A successful structural engineer stands out by creatively solving the project challenges encountered, drawing on his experience to benefit future projects throughout his professional career.

Creative thinking is a skill. It can be obtained and honed to perfection. To enhance your creativity, which as a result, improves your general way of thinking and problem solving you must: 1- Activate the creative side of your brain. This can be done by immersing yourself in art. It can be of any kind you like including, music, visual arts, etc. 2- Try and face different challenges in real life that are not necessarily related to structural engineering problems. This will help consolidating your skills and improving your approaches on problem solving.

Collaborative workspaces play a vital role in enhancing creativity within structural engineering projects. By bringing together diverse team members in an environment that encourages open communication and idea sharing, these spaces foster a culture of innovation. In such an environment, engineers can freely exchange insights and build upon ideas, leading to more inventive solutions. The synergy created in collaborative workspaces not only accelerates the problem-solving process but also enriches the project with a range of perspectives, ultimately driving more effective and creative engineering outcomes.

Continuous learning is essential for structural engineers aiming to boost creativity in their projects. It involves keeping up with industry advancements, engaging in professional development activities, and learning from every project experience. This approach not only broadens knowledge but also introduces fresh perspectives for solving complex problems innovatively. Prioritizing this ongoing learning process equips engineers with diverse techniques and insights, enabling them to tackle creative challenges more effectively.

Trying to grasp a new concept, will in fact activate your creativity to a great extent. In other words, you should always be on the stream on learning new things.

While solving a problem, there are validated methods that compared to one's creativity, seem a bit old and dull, but the main reason behind incorporating such methods is that their competency has been proven. You can always use your creativity to solve problems, but you have to realize that for some problems, using the older methods might be wiser than trying new approaches, at least until the most recent ones become more trusted and validated by experts and industry leaders.

I think that some new trends like 3D printing has really improved the quality of engineering projects. Focusing on being eco-friendly and using new technologies has made the work more innovative and in tune with what's important today, like being good to the environment and embracing new ways of building.

A relatively new but famous approach to problem solving in structural engineering field, is employing the AI. It can be incorporated into many aspects, and used to solve various types of problems. As an example, optimization problems would be far more easily solved with AI, compared to conventional methods.