Glazed Spandrels
Recent years have seen an increased use of insulated glazing units in spandrel applications to visually blend the appearance between the vision and s…
43 results
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Two Sides to Sustainability & High-performance
High performance can be defined as “a building that integrates and optimizes all major high-performance building attributes, including energy efficie…
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Doubling Mies
Mies van der Rohe’s concurrently designed projects for Commonwealth Promenade Apartments (1953-1956) and the Esplanade Apartments (1953-1957), saw th…
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The Tectonics of Flimsiness
Architecture has traditionally celebrated the joining of two building components or materials. Joinery serves as a key site for architectural express…
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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…
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Shaping Skin
The conventional modern facade is essentially flat, which creates the tendency toward visual monotony and problems for modulating daylight—both on th…
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Facade Mock-ups
Curtain walls and window walls are typically specified to meet a variety of different performance and testing criteria, some of which can be quite st…
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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 …
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Steel As A Curtain Wall Framing Material
This paper will explore steel forming methods other than cold drawn or hot rolled processes, and how they allow steel to be utilized as the primary f…
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Translation from Concept to Construction
Fidelity between the built enclosure and early visualizations is rarely, if ever, an accident. When achieved, it comes as the result of persistent ef…
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Heat-Treated Glass
What was once an accepted reality in heat-treated exterior glass, optical disturbances in glass are under increasing scrutiny by developers, designer…
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Thermal Stress Analysis in Glass
The use of glass in windows and curtain walls in residential as well as in commercial buildings needs to be designed very carefully. In addition to t…
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Glass and Electromagnetic Eavesdropping Protection
Glass is a key component in building design. Benefits of utilizing Insulating Glass Units (IGUs) within a building facade are well understood, includ…
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Fully Tempered Glass in Spandrel Applications
Recent years have seen an increase in the use of insulated glazing units (IGUs) in spandrel applications to visually blend the appearance between the…
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Hardened Facades Effects on Structural Systems
To ensure the safety of U.S diplomatic personnel overseas, the U.S Department of State (DoS) has developed facade retrofits capable of resisting high…
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Adaptable Glazing Shields
Today, about 40% of all buildings in the U.S. still have single-pane windows, and ~70% of the existing building stock is estimated to suffer from und…
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Contextual Envelopes
Aesthetic and technical capabilities of facade design have become seemingly endless as building technologies progress. While the capacity to address …
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Facade Wind Loading
Wind induced pressure is a major design consideration for building facades. However, the effects of facade geometry and urban terrain on wind loading…
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Evaluating Additive Manufacturing for Metallic Facade Components
The state-of-the-art of Additive Manufacturing (AM), popularly known as 3D printing, shows its prospective future in the Architecture-Engineering-Con…
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Fire Safety in High Rise Exterior Facades
One of the most complex yet least understood areas where fire can spread is at the perimeter of a building. Fire can not only spread from floor-to-fl…