Motion Structures & Modular Building Systems: Synergistic Innovations in Materials, Mechanisms, and Digital Design

Driven by rapid urbanization, intensifying climate hazards, resource constraints, and decarbonization commitments, the AEC sector is moving beyond static, single configuration buildings toward motion enabled structural systems that can change shape, state, or function over time. Motion structures, including deployable, foldable, retractable, reconfigurable, and adaptive systems, combined with modular building approaches provide practical pathways to respond to fluctuating occupancy needs, constrained sites, extreme environments, and fast deployment requirements, while improving construction efficiency and lifecycle sustainability.Advances in this field stem from the convergence of structural mechanics and kinematics, innovative joints and locking/unlocking strategies, smart and lightweight materials, sensing/actuation and control, and computational design and simulation. Emerging solutions range from deployable trusses, tensegrity systems, and origami/kirigami-inspired architectures to pneumatic/soft structures and hybrid rigid–flexible systems, supported by variable-stiffness materials, shape-memory technologies, digital fabrication, and industrialized production. In parallel, modularization and off-site construction, enabled by standardized interfaces and scalable manufacturing, enhance quality assurance, shorten schedules, and facilitate disassembly, upgrading, and reuse.This Research Topic invites original research and comprehensive reviews that advance the theory, design, analysis, prototyping, and real-world deployment of motion structures and modular building systems, with an emphasis on bridging fundamental innovation and engineering practice to improve safety, resilience, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability.Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):• Mechanics, Kinematics, and Mechanism Design of Motion Structures• Joints, Interfaces, and Locking/Unlocking Strategies for Reconfiguration• Lightweight, Smart, and Programmable Materials for Motion-Enabled Systems• Modular Building System Design, Standardization, and Industrialized Production• Deployable, Retractable, and Reconfigurable Structural Typologies (Trusses, Shells, Tensegrity, Origami/Kirigami)• Inflatable, Pneumatic, and Soft/Hybrid Structural Systems• Adaptive Envelopes and Climate-Responsive Façade Motion Systems• Nonlinear Analysis, Dynamics, Stability, and Multi-Physics Performance Evaluation• Optimization, Reliability, and Robust Design under Uncertainty• Digital Workflows: Parametric/Generative Design, Simulation, Digital Twins, and Automated Construction Topic editors: Qian Zhang, Ya ZHOU Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77491/motion-structures-modular-building-systems-synergistic-innovations-in-materials-mechanisms-and-digital-design