Influence of Key Building Parameters on Diagrid and Conventional Structural Systems: A Review

Abstract

Tall building design has moved through several generations of lateral load-resisting systems, from rigid frames and shear walls to tubular and outrigger arrangements, and more recently to diagrid configurations that combine gravity and lateral resistance within an exterior triangulated grid. This review synthesises the published evidence on how key building parameters, namely height, slenderness or aspect ratio, plan geometry, diagrid angle, material and connection detailing, seismic design parameters, and foundation or soil conditions, govern the structural performance of diagrid systems relative to conventional moment frame, shear wall, braced tube, and outrigger systems. The literature consistently shows that diagrid efficiency depends on a diagonal inclination broadly between 50 and 75 degrees from the horizontal, with the optimum value shifting upward as building height and aspect ratio increase. Diagrid systems generally outperform conventional frames in lateral stiffness and steel economy for buildings above roughly forty storeys, while conventional systems, particularly shear wall and outrigger arrangements, retain advantages in low to mid-rise construction and in cases requiring greater architectural flexibility at the perimeter. Plan shape, core configuration, joint detailing, and soil-structure interaction further modulate these outcomes in ways that are not yet fully reconciled across studies using different analytical assumptions. The review concludes that future work should prioritise standardised parametric benchmarks, life-cycle and embodied-carbon comparisons, and validated machine learning surrogate models to support early-stage selection between diagrid and conventional systems.