A: There are a total of 4 floors designated as retail space: floors f=1, f=2, f=n-1, and f=n. The floor designation is for both towers (i.e., floor f=1 consists of the bottom floor for both towers, even though they are not connected to each other). Figure 9, elevation A-A in the design guide is a helpful visual.

A: The location for the competition will be announced soon, but in the meantime you can go with downtown San Francisco.

A: The building model can be scaled only for render purposes to show any aesthetic features of the building if it would be constructed in real life. However, for the cost and revenue, no scaling is allowed as the FABI is based on the area of the wooden model.

A: Facades and balconies are permitted to extend beyond the structural perimeter. However, livable spaces beyond the structural perimeter are not permitted.

A: Any scaling factors considering the building to be a typical real life construction can be used (average height of stories is 14’ giving a scale of 1:56, not more than this). Yes, lofted spaces are permitted as long as they follow the California building and fire codes.

A: One tower has to be entirely commercial and the other residential. It is up to the engineer to decide on the assignment. Note that the lowermost and the two uppermost floor levels are retail spaces. All the sky bridges, and not the entire sky bridge floor, will be leased as retail space.

A: In Q1.5 we stated that any scaling factors considering the building to be a typical real life construction can be used. If the average height of a story is 14’, then the scaling factor would be 1:56, which is the average, not the maximum. Please select scaling factors that would yield “typical real life construction”.

A: Participants should stick to the provided ratio and follow the response from the previous clarification.

A: The damping device is not required to be designed to be removable during the competition. This section is meant to specify that damping devices should not affect the stability of the structure, rather as a supplemental element to assist in energy dissipation. It will be obvious if stability is compromised if damping devices were to be removed from the structure. Hence, in case SDC Chairs determine that the damping devices must be removed, it would benefit teams to design their devices in a way that extraction of the devices would be relatively straightforward and wouldn’t compromise the structural integrity of the tower.

A: The due date of the damping proposal will be announced to the teams soon. It will be on a separate date from the design proposal submission.

A: The skybridges need to be centered between the two towers, i.e., they cannot be staggered from each other. This is further clarified in the Design Guide, Section 4, Floor Requirements.

A: The roof plate needs to be touching the two towers and the skybridges. We will accept that there are minor areas where the roof plate will not be touching anything, however, it needs to be centered in the building and touching the skybridge and the two towers. Please click here to see  illustrative sketch (not drawn to scale).

A: Curtain walls as non-structural elements should not be in the actual physical model but can be added in the architectural rendering. Furthermore, gusset plates are not curtain walls. Gusset plates are permitted but shall not be in contact with any wall members. A gusset plate shall be in contact with and glued to at least two frame members in contact. Each gusset plate shall fit in a 0.100 in. by 1 in. by 1 in. box. Also, each individual wall member in its final state attached to the model shall fit in a 0.100 in. by 3.000 in. by 11.000 in. box.

A: Refer to Figure 12 in the Design Guide, especially to the top left X bracing orientation for the floor rentable area. For an area to be counted as rentable area, a span from any point perpendicular to a beam bordering the opening has to be 2.5 inches or less.

A: There is no restriction on how to connect the sky bridges to other structural elements as long as you abide by the other rules mentioned in the “Design Guide”. The topmost skybridge has to have two crosswalks.

A: No, If you use the area on the roof of the skybridge, you will use it for your rentable area. So you are not allowed to put any members on the top of the skybridge as the roof is not counted as a rentable area!

A: The measured dimensions parallel to the base plate must be a minimum of 1 in. A shape with a vertex would not meet those requirements. The wall member can be cut in any way as long as it fits the box dimensions of 0.100 in. by 3.000 in. by 11.000 and meets the minimum requirements mentioned in Section 7.3a.

A: Any member glued to a wall must meet the requirements of Section 7.4a. The glue can only be present at the fraying surface of the individual members. For example, the section states: “any members in contact must have glue between the faying surfaces of the two members.” In addition, “excess glue must be confined to 0.5 in. in any direction of the edge of any faying surface.” Each violation of the members’ connection will result in 3 added to V. 

A: Lamination of two plywood plates to make up for the required thickness is accepted as long as there is no space (gap) between the two sheets. On the other hand, dowel pins are not accepted. However, the SLC strongly encourages the team to use a single 0.5-in thick plate if possible.

A: Paint or coating is not allowed on any portion of the model no matter if it is baseplate or not! 

A: Any member glued to a wall must meet the requirements of Section 7.4a. The glue can only be present at the fraying surface of the individual members. For example, the section states: “any members in contact must have glue between the faying surfaces of the two members.” In addition, “excess glue must be confined to 0.5 in. in any direction of the edge of any faying surface.” Each violation of the members’ connection will result in 3 added to V. 

A: The floor dead loads are installed at specific floor levels only. The details can be found in section 8.3 of the ‘Official Rules’ and section 5 and 8 of ‘Design Guide’.

A: Please refer to section 8.3b of the ‘Official rules’.

A: The rods that will be used in this year’s competition will have the same dimensions as the previous year: 0.5 inch diameter and 12 inch long.

A: The teams don’t have to bring their accelerometer. The SDC organizing committee will provide the accelerometer and perform the post-processing based on standard practice.

A: A suitable low pass filter to remove noise from the obtained data will be used. The filter is calibrated based on the shake table and the same post processing will be used for all the teams.

A: The ground motions are artificial and not based on an actual earthquake event, therefore they do not have a corresponding recording station. The ground motions are based on the geographic location and the structural response of this year’s design challenge. 

A: The teams will be able to work on the first day of the competition until we start the preliminary judging. Roughly the students have until 6 pm of that day to fix any damages that might occur from the transportation process. However, once we start the preliminary judging  the students are not allowed to touch the building.

A: Yes, dedicated space with a mailing address will be provided. The details will be provided soon.

A: No, you do not need to have the student chapter officially established. We understand that it takes time to establish the chapter, and you are actively working on getting the approval for an official chapter. We welcome your participation and encourage you to follow up with EERI about your student chapter status.

A: The dimensions of any skybridge needs to be on the same level as the floor it exists on. Furthermore, the minimum and maximum clear distance between the skybridges needs to be maintained as mentioned in the design guide. They will be measured with the level of the floor. If you maintain the horizontal level of the skybridge with the floor with no members higher or lower, then it should be fine.

A: The teams don’t have to bring the steel angles. The SDC organizing committee will provide them.

A: Any shape that has a minimum vertical height of 1” at all horizontal points and has a minimum horizontal dimension of 1” will satisfy the requirement. The example shape described in the question will satisfy the requirement provided it has a minimum horizontal dimension of 1”.

A: No limitations as long as the surface remains flat and smooth. Typically, teams notch the entire thickness to get a bigger surface area.

A: Dead loads are provided at the competition.

A: The wall member can be a maximum of 3” as shown in Figure 3 of the Design Guide. 

A: If your damper was inspired from an existing damper implemented in a real building, then provide a cost of implementing the damper, if available. However, if your damper is unique and wasn’t implemented before, please provide a prediction of how much it will cost to implement a hypothetical real-life, full scale counterpart.