57 results

  • Autonomous or Appropriate

    This paper examines two profoundly different design approaches: one, herein called ‘autonomous’, where the building’s design is governed by internal …

  • Developments in Gridshell Design

    In 1959 Heinz Isler challenged the world of concrete shell design by proposing a series of shapes for shells that were very different from what most …

  • Process of Repair Evaluation featured image

    Process of Repair Evaluation

    As the building stock ages around the country and the consequences of design and/or construction that are deficient or lack resiliency become apparen…

  • Slipping through the Cracks featured image

    Slipping through the Cracks

    We construct building enclosures to keep the elements out, but sometimes air and water infiltrate the building envelope, causing several problems for…

  • VR For Daylight featured image

    VR For Daylight

    Daylighting is often an important component of architectural design and heavily influenced by a building’s facade and enclosure systems. Unlike many …

  • Corrugated-geometry Copper and Glass Facade featured image

    Corrugated-geometry Copper and Glass Facade

    The subject of this case study is the design and construction of a custom corrugated-geometry facade featuring pre-patinated copper and glass for an …

  • Saving Face featured image

    Saving Face

    In 1871, a fourth level Architecture course was offered in New York City that instructed on topics such as heating, ventilation and circulation of wa…

  • Reinforced Polymer Concrete Screen Walls featured image

    Reinforced Polymer Concrete Screen Walls

    Apertures is a six-story, commercial building in the Roma Norte neighborhood of Mexico City–a neighborhood severely impacted by the 1985 and 2017 ear…

  • Facade with Innovation

    Shanshui City and Star Bund Center can be considered as representative projects of RFR Shanghai recently Both provide creative solutions for complex …

  • Invert Auto-Shading featured image

    Invert Auto-Shading

    Allowing sufficient amount of natural light while avoiding excessive sunlight penetration is often hard to achieve with static facade systems due to …

  • Ginza Six featured image

    Ginza Six

    Tokyo’s prestigious Ginza District, is home to innovative architectural design. One of the most recent examples is Ginza Six (GSIX), the largest comm…

  • Managing Solar Reflections from the Building Envelope featured image

    Managing Solar Reflections from the Building Envelope

    Understanding how a building will reflect sunlight has gone from a rare requirement to a key consideration during the planning permission process in …

  • The Evolution of AEC Professional Silos

    Healthcare projects in northern California require specialized knowledge to navigate regulation, technological advancements, and project execution du…

  • Facade Games featured image

    Facade Games

    This paper provides an overview of a course focusing on the façade as taught to architecture students over a twenty-year period. The need for this s…

  • Systems Thinking

    This paper surveys facade design education in accredited Bachelor and Master of Architecture (B.Arch and M.Arch) programs in the United States. A rev…

  • The First Triple Certified Facade featured image

    The First Triple Certified Facade

    Johnson Controls (JCI), a leading provider of intelligent building technology solicited the design of a 35,000sm headquarters for its Asia-Pacific Re…

  • Put Your Sweater On!

    During the particularly cold first months of 1977 President Jimmy Carter, in what some call “The Sweater Speech,” famously noted how much energy coul…