The use of novel materials and new structural concepts nowadays is not restricted to highly technical areas like aerospace, aeronautical applications or the automotive industry, but affects all engineering fields including those such as civil engineering and architecture.

Addressing issues involving advanced types of structures, particularly those based on new concepts or new materials and their system design, contributions highlight the latest developments in design, optimisation, manufacturing and experimentation.  Also included are contributions on new software, numerical methods and different optimisation techniques. Optimisation problems of interest involve those related to size, shape and topology of structures and materials.

Optimisation techniques have much to offer to those involved in the design of new industrial products. The formulation of optimum design has evolved from the time it was purely an academic topic, able now to satisfy the requirements of real life prototypes. The development of new algorithms and the appearance of powerful commercial computer codes, with easy to use graphical interfaces, have created a fertile field for the incorporation of optimisation in the design process in all engineering disciplines.

This proceedings volume is the first from a new edition of the High Performance Design of Structures and Materials and the Optimum Design of Structures conferences, which follows the success of a number of meetings that originated in 1989.

Topics covered include: Materials Characterisation; Experiments and Numerical Analyses; Composite Materials and Structures; Green Composites; Composites for Automotive Applications; Structural Optimization; Optimization Problems; Steel Structures; Timber Structures; Corrosion Problems; Surface Modification; Innovative Technologies; Heritage Constructions; Sustainable Solutions