291 results

  • Seismic Movements featured image

    Seismic Movements

    A common building upgrade to add value to existing commercial real estate is the renewal of the entrance lobby. The lobby facade is replaced to give …

  • Structuring Skin featured image

    Structuring Skin

    Curtain wall is the prevailing type of enclosure on modern buildings because of its economy, its independence from structure that allows flexibility …

  • Retrofit Options for Historic Facades featured image

    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…

  • Specifying Commercial Aluminum Finishes featured image

    Specifying Commercial Aluminum Finishes

    Many factors will influence coating selection, but to achieve the desired performance level for a given situation, coatings must be specified based u…

  • Paul Rudolph's Christian Science Building featured image

    Paul Rudolph's Christian Science Building

    This paper presents new historical research on the concrete facade of an important but relatively unknown and now demolished building by the American…

  • Silicone Spandrel Glass Opacifiers featured image

    Silicone Spandrel Glass Opacifiers

    Curtain wall design commonly uses insulating glass units for vision and spandrel glazing to provide better visual harmonization of building facade gl…

  • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston featured image

    Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

    Steven Holl Architects designed two new buildings in the Museum District in Houston, Texas. Knippers Helbig is the facade consultant of both projects…

  • Patchwork

    It may be difficult for modern man to believe that what is known as handicraft was once the advanced manufacturing of the day. These techniques were …

  • Parametric Facade Design featured image

    Parametric Facade Design

    Parametric Design has become an invaluable tool for complex tasks like designing energy efficient buildings when joined to performance-based methodol…

  • 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…

  • Multilayer Design Technique in the Metal Facades featured image

    Multilayer Design Technique in the Metal Facades

    Multilayer design technique in metal facades is introduced in this paper. Generally, in this technique, a metal facade is designed in the fourth laye…

  • Origami-Inspired Facade Design featured image

    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…

  • 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…

  • Optimized Green Wall featured image

    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 …

  • Multi Layer Facades featured image

    Multi Layer Facades

    The history of high performance facades and glazing has been a tale of attempting to manage the conflicting requirements of, on one hand inviting con…

  • Shadow Box Design featured image

    Shadow Box Design

    Shadow boxes are commonly used in curtain wall construction, but can be problematic if not designed and detailed correctly and appropriately for the …

  • Novel Techniques for Facade Optimization featured image

    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.…

  • Separating Direct From Diffuse featured image

    Separating Direct From Diffuse

    An Enclosure-Integrated, Daylighting, Tracking Solar Collector (EIDTSC) has been developed for market which integrates into a building’s fenestration…