A major part of the world's resource consumption, waste production and green house gas emissions is due to the construction sector. Ultra-light weight structures can be very resource efficient, but do require active elements to withstand all occurring loads. This contribution presents different principles for activating conventional civil engineering structures. Specifically, serial and parallel actuation are considered, where each actuator is assumed to be either force- or position-controlled in an underlying control-loop. Modeling of the actuator integration is based on the classic FE-workflow, with mass- and stiffness-matrix obtained from the assembly step of the FE-analysis. We show how to integrate the input models for the different actuation principles and transform the input from one type to another, such that the input modeling can be separated from the preceding assembly step. These models will be used to gain insights into when to use what kind of actuation type in the design step. Numerical results show the feasibility of the proposed input models and the idea of saving mass with adaptive structures in general, while at the same time supporting the derived design recommendations based on the pros and cons of the different types of mechanical integration.