Introduction

The annual symposium of IASS* (International Association of Shell and Spatial structures) will be held in Seoul, KOREA on 21-24 May 2012. It will be jointly held with the APCS**.

For decades, both IASS and APCS symposiums have provided a series of forums to share and discuss new and innovative ideas in the development of shell and spatial structures. These ideas come from researchers, engineers, and architects. All IASS and APCS members can keep informed of the latest ideas and advances in shell and spatial structures through the symposium. The main objective of IASS-APCS 2012 is to stimulate and promote new engineering technologies and new design concepts for shell and spatial structures. A friendly open environment will be provided so all participants can share and develop new ideas on shell and spatial structures.

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*The IASS was found in 1959 by Eduardo Torroja. Its goal is to achieve future progress through an interchange of ideas among all those interested in lightweight structural systems such as lattice, tension, membrane, and shell structures. The activities of IASS include publishing the Journal of the IASS thrice a year, organizing annual Symposia and occasional Colloquia, etc. There are several technical working groups in the association according to different research areas.

**The APCS is originated from the Korean-Japan Colloquium on Shell and Spatial Structures (KJCSS). The KJCSS was co-organized by the late Prof. Y. Hangai (Japan) and Prof. T.J. Kwun (Korea). In 1984, the first colloquium was held in Jeju, Korea. Then, it was named as “Asian Pacific Conference on Shell and Spatial Structures (APCS)” from the third colloquium. Notably, the 6th APCS was tributed to the late Prof. Yasuhiko Hangai of IIS, University of Tokyo who passed away on the 9th August 1998 as a memorial conference. He has been rememberd as one of the co-founder of the APCS and a re-knowned scholar in the field of shell and spatial structures.

A complete list of previous APCS are listed in chronological order:

1. August 1984, Jeju, Korea (T.J. Kwun)
2. August 1987, Tokyo, Japan (Y. Hangai)
3. August 1990, Daegu, Korea (H.S. Kim & M.M. Kang)
4. October 1993, Tokyo, Japan (Y. Hangai)
5. May 1996, Beijing, China (T.T. Lan)
6. October 2000, Seoul, Korea (T.J. Kwun)
7. October 2003, Taipei, Taiwan (Y.B. Yang)
8. October 2006, Beijing, China (S.D. Xue)
9. May 2009, Nagoya, Japan (M. Takayama)