Structural design of large engineering projects is a complex process where a team of design experts carries out a plenitude of design activities. The individual designers are forced to cooperate in various ways to harmonise the distinct aspects of design. Reliable techniques for the exchange of information between different design tools are a fundamental necessity. However, the consideration of human-centred aspects by making use of cooperation facilities is also required. Consequently, cooperation is conceptually described serving as a modelling basis for the subsequent analysis of the structural steel design process. The analysis leads to a product model incorporating all aspects of structural steel design, from preliminary design to structural detailing. In addition, a second model is created that captures distinct cooperation aspects of the design process. Both models are integrated in a distributed computational system supporting structural design of steel girder structures in a collaborative manner. Aspects of the system implemented are demonstrated in a fictitious design scenario. Finally, some concluding remarks and an outlook on future work are given.

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