Seismic Movements
A common building upgrade to add value to existing commercial real estate is the renewal of the entrance lobby. The lobby façade is replaced to give …
175 results
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Retrofit Options for Historic Facades
Building design criteria requires that government buildings be designed for a variety of extreme loads including blast, hurricane, and impact conditi…
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Renewing Two Saarinen Icons
Kresge Auditorium and the MIT Chapel, designed by Eero Saarinen and built in 1955, are both world renowned works of architecture and powerful symbols…
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Performance Criteria for Museum Enclosure Design
This paper develops a framework of considerations for the development of project specific performance criteria for the design of art museums and art-…
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Performance Based Generative Facade Workflow for Large Scale Projects
Over the last two decades, in what has been coined “The Digital Turn”, the introduction of parametric design software has afforded increased accessib…
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Parametric Facade Design
Parametric Design has become an invaluable tool for complex tasks like designing energy efficient buildings when joined to performance-based methodol…
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Origami-Inspired Facade Design
To paraphrase Robert le Ricolias, the art of the structure is where to put the folds. Using that inspiration, fundamental concepts from origami, topo…
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Orbit Tower
While most of high-rise buildings feature a core surrounded by a spatial frame defining the volume, one could envision a column-free plan where the p…
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Optimized Green Wall
A Catmull-Clark algorithm (used in 3D computer graphics for smoothing polygon surfaces) was used to create a unique design for an over 208ft by 30ft …
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Novel Techniques for Facade Optimization
Complex freeform architectural enclosures are becoming increasingly popular and easy to model and design with the help of modern computational tools.…
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Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Steven Holl Architects designed two new buildings in the Museum District in Houston, Texas. Knippers Helbig is the façade consultant of both projects…
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Localized Rigidification of PCM Envelopes
This is an experimental and computational exploration of structural systems that transform between states of rigidity and flexibility. The goal is to…
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Lightning Protection as Building Envelope
A building’s envelope mitigates the effects of meteorological phenomena – including lightning – upon the structure and its occupants and contents. Th…
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Kinetics in Building Facades
The prominence of climatically responsive building facades through the use of kinetics has proliferated in recent years due to a concern for the redu…
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Kinetic Shading Systems
This study focuses on experiments in kinetics and architectural skins. More extensively, it introduces a solution for environmental design issues and…
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Kinematic Structural Glass
The structural glass storefront facade at 111 Main Street in Salt Lake City lends itself as a case study in accommodating large building displacement…
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Integrated Energy Analysis
Energy codes across the country are progressively getting stricter and increasing the threshold for a baseline building’s energy performance. Califor…
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In Factory Commissioning
Factory inspection visits are vital, yet they unfortunately have a habit of being overlooked. The factory inspection process during the Building Enve…
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Hydrophobic Stainless Steel Surfaces
There is no doubting the longevity of stainless steel building facades. The Chrysler Building and numerous buildings that followed have stood the tes…
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Hybrid Timber
This case study provides an overview of building hybrid curtain wall system and future opportunities for the use of timber. It will also review the b…
