Genetic programming is a relatively new method of evolutionary computing with few published applications in civil engineering. This paper both describes and demonstrates how GP can be applied to structural optimisation and design problems to produce results that offer significant improvements over traditional GA based methods. The paper concludes by presenting the direction of the work currently being undertaken at Cardiff University, which includes the conceptual design of frame structures and the visualisation of results using VRML/X3D to produce virtual reality simulations that can be used as a collaborative design environment over the Internet.