Environmentally Friendly Technologies and Structures - Focusing on Sustainable Approaches
The Japanese Group of IABSE, along with the Organising and Scientific Committees organised the IABSE Symposium Tokyo 2025 from 18 to 21 May 2025. This 4-Day event was held at the Waseda University and at the RIHGA Royal Hotel on “Environmentally Friendly Technologies and Structures: Focusing on Sustainable Approaches.”
The Spring Meetings started with the Executive Committee meeting on 17 May 2025 and had members attending from China, Japan, Italy, India, Mexico, Switzerland and USA. There were two other Task Group 1.11 and 4.1 meetings along with the Administrative Committee meeting.
The Symposium started with a Welcome Reception hosted the Japanese Group of IABSE at the Royal Hall of RIHGA Royal Hotel, where all registered participants gathered to enjoy drinks and Japanese delicacies. On 19 May, the Symposium’s Welcome Ceremony began with speeches delivered by Prof. Akiyama Mitsuyoshi OC Chair, Prof. Toru Takeuchi, SC Chair and Dr. Tina Vejrum, President of IABSE, which was followed by the Keynote Lectures. The Technical Sessions were distributed between the Waseda University and at the RIHGA Royal Hotel. Participants from all over the world, learning from the presenters, exchanging knowledge, and interacting during the coffee breaks with peers and colleagues.
The OC also offered six interesting touristic tours across the city, free of cost for the Accompanying persons. The Gala dinner took place on 20 May at the Royal Hall, with two very interesting performances including the traditional Sugaru Shamisen - a traditional Japanese musical culture which combines the qualities of both stringed and percussion instruments. The symposium ended with a Closing Ceremony with thank you notes by the OC, SC, YE Awards presentations and the President of IABSE closing remarks followed by presentations of IABSE’s upcoming events
The primary objective of this colloquium was to help young structural engineers (under the age of 40) to make friends, learn from each other, and develop their professional careers together. It aimed to offer a platform to present their research, projects, and innovative design ideas. The event was successfully organised by the IABSE National Groups of Japan, China, Korean Rep., Hong Kong SAR China and Germany, and there were over 200 participants with many interesting sessions, including a mentoring session by Shunichi Nakamura, before the prize ceremony. We thank the core group of students led by Tomoki Yamashita from Wasda University who managed the entire event onsite, along with YEC S.E.Asia visiting core members.
Workshops will be organised on 26 August 2025 at the Ghent ICC congress venue, in parallel with the Annual Meetings: Register Here.
(1) Forensic Engineering Workshop
Title: Structural Failures – Investigations, Causes, Lessons Learned to Mitigate Failures. Location: Ghent ICC, Ghent Belgium. Organiser: John F. Duntemann, Laurent Rus, Svein Erik Jakobsen and Matías A. Valenzuela. Cost: 475€ incl. taxes.
(2) Structural Health Monitoring
Title: A 12-hour blended short course designed to pose the structural health monitoring (SHM) in the context of a statistical pattern recognition paradigm to support the damage identification process and risk-informed integrity management. Location: Ghent ICC, Ghent Belgium. Organiser: Eloi Figueiredo, Ionut Moldovan, Michael Havbor Faber Cost: 475€ incl. taxes.
Reception of the President of IABSE
All participants of the Annual Meeting are warmly invited to attend the Reception of the IABSE President, a special gathering in the prestigious Pacification Hall of Ghent City Hall. This historic venue, known for its grandeur and significance, provides the perfect setting for an evening of inspiring conversations and professional connections (photo below).
Society expects structures to be reliable and to perform well under all possible conditions, from normal to extreme, such as those imposed by climate change and natural and man-made hazards. Read more here ...
The construction industry is responsible for a substantial part of the global CO2 emissions, and the sector’s traditional technical solutions are not sufficient to reduce emissions to the level set by the UN sustainability goals. At the same time, expanding and maintaining the built environment worldwide is crucial for achieving balanced living conditions, which is essential for the development of a socially sustainable global society.
This presents a dilemma between environmental and social sustainability and calls for fundamental changes in the way the construction industry designs, constructs and maintains buildings and civil infrastructure. To facilitate discussions on these urgently required changes of paradigms, the Copenhagen IABSE Symposium will focus on how structural innovation based on advanced technologies can answer the most important question of our time for the structural engineering profession.
To explore the main theme in greater depth, the following eight sub-themes have
been prepared:
• Expanded habitats and networks
• Disaster-resilient and risk mitigation
• Smart structures, AI and digital transformation
• Sustainability, clean energy and carbon neutrality
• Structural health monitoring, operation and maintenance
• Innovative structures and construction technologies
• Advanced structural materials
• State-of-the-art design and analysis
Submissions on traditional topics in bridge and structural engineering are
also highly encouraged.
IABSE Awards
Sponsorship opportunities are now open for the IABSE Awards & Gala Dinner 2025! An evening dedicated to celebrating excellence and innovation in structural engineering. Connect your brand with a worldwide community of leading professionals and companies at an unforgettable night of recognition and collaboration. Interested in supporting the event? Reach out marketing@iabse.org or explore www.iabse.org/IABSEAwards for sponsorship options. Let’s create a meaningful evening together.
Activities of IABSE's Technical Committee
The Technical Committee (TC) chaired by Tobia Zordan is responsible for the overall technical activities of IABSE. It promotes, co-ordinates and assesses the activities of all technical groups.Read further here ...
The TC meetings, Part 1 & 2 with Commission and Board Chairs, took place on 7 & 13 May 2025, where group members presented their activities, elected new Chairs for the Commissions and discussed present and future activities. IABSE’s six Commissions on different topics are the functional centres, monitoring and coordinating the short-term Task Groups (TG). If you wish to join any TG, write to us at technical@iabse.org and we shall connect you to the Chair.
On 6 May 2025, Task Group 1.2 chaired by Ignacio Paya-Zaforteza and vice-chaired by Stefan Zmigrodzki, held the first part of TG 1.2 webinar series on 'Structural Design of Bridges against Fire Hazards'. The focus of the series is on “the why” of the importance of bridge fires, the vulnerability of bridges exposed to fires, dealing with fire hazards, and finally, fire engineering related to bridge structures. You can watch the recording here. Read further here and register (free) for Part 2 here.
On 28 April 2025, TG 5.6 chaired by Vanja Samec, and vice-chaired by Changsu Shim, organised a webinar titled, 'BIM for Bridge Maintenance and Operation in South Korea'. You can watch the recording here. Read further here...
On 22 April 2025, the Bulletin Editorial Board chaired by Fabrizio Palmisano welcomed Shunichi Nakamura from Japan and Moustafa Al-Ani from New Zealand as new members who will be officially elected to the Board, along with guest Mingming Song from China. Bulletin proposals were discussed and the newly publishedSpecial Publication 1 by IABSE Commission 4.
Young Engineers Colloquium 2025 - Munich
On 8-9 November 2025, the 8th Young Engineers Colloquium (YEC) is being organised by the German and Italian Groups of IABSE for young engineers from academia and practice in civil engineering. The event will be organised at the Munich University of Applied Sciences. Click Here for the Flyer and the Call for Papers.
IABSE Publications
New Book Launch!
IABSE Bulletin - Special Publications 1 by IABSE Commission 4
This book is designed to be a practical, “easy to read” resource to assist bridge engineers in various roles – including bridge owners, designers, constructors, or colleagues from academia. Focused on bridge construction, the book is driven by two simple and narrow questions: “How can I do it?” and “What is critical?”. It is likely that many readers will not read the book in one sitting – but will refer to chapters as needed based on their specific needs and/or interests.
The National Groups are, in their field of influence, are responsible for the active support of the objectives of the Association. They support IABSE in particular through the nomination of qualified members for election to the different committees of the Association. They may have their own activities, such as conferences and publications. Click Here!
Denmark
On 28 April 2025, the Danish Group of IABSE presented the 'IABSE Construction Prize' to 'the Dome at ARoS'. During the General Assembly, there was a presentation on the project, where the award was officially given to Mads Suikkanen & Bernt Suikkanen.
In April 2025, as part of the collaboration between national groups, members of IABSE Ecuador and Chile participated in a series of technical and academic activities in Santiago and Valparaíso, Chile.
On 10 April 2025, the Future of Design conference took place at the University of Leeds, with more than 40 enthusiastic students and young professionals in attendance. Mark Bulmer, Secretary, British Group, welcomed the attendees to the event before introducing the first speaker of the day, Graham Thomas, Associate Director at Arup.
Congratulations and heartfelt thanks to our colleague Brindarica Bose at the IABSE Secretariat on completing 20 years of dedicated service on 2 May 2025!
We sincerely thank Brinda for her enthusiasm and unwavering commitment to IABSE’s publications, including SEI, SEDs, and Case Studies, as well as for her efforts in elevating the association’s communications with National Groups and Technical Groups, helping to expand IABSE’s visibility beyond the association to a broader audience.
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