36 results

  • Highly Efficient Façades with Innovative Shading and Light Control featured image

    Highly Efficient Façades with Innovative Shading and Light Control

    The Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) on the Allston Campus is the largest new building at Harvard University in recent decades with a footprint …

  • Parametric Louver System

    The Parametric Louver System is a customized tool that expedites several design iterations while embedding multiple design parameters. The ambition o…

  • Form Follows Well-Being

    Recent planning recognizes a growing demand for buildings that provide higher levels of occupant well-being. Often, well-being in buildings is reduce…

  • The Craft of Building Enclosures

    This paper will provide case studies of two high-performance building envelopes in the San Francisco Bay Area where the fabrication of bespoke façade…

  • Design Principles For Museum Daylight Systems featured image

    Design Principles For Museum Daylight Systems

    This research unlocks the relationship between space, structure and light in nine unique museums developed by architect Renzo Piano. Renzo Piano uses…

  • The Performative Double-Skin featured image

    The Performative Double-Skin

    Double-Skin Facades (DSF) are well-known to boost the thermal performance of a façade: they can provide extra insulation in the wintertime and lower …

  • Passively Actuated Systems

    Kinetic or responsive facades have been developed to improve buildings' daylighting conditions while mitigating energy consumption. Still, these faca…

  • Reconfigurable Terracotta Facade featured image

    Reconfigurable Terracotta Facade

    The traditional building facade as a permanent construction does not actively respond to the differing needs from varying weather conditions. Convent…

  • Smart Colored Window Technology

    Traditional architecture can be a valuable source of inspiration for designers. Sustainable design concepts in traditional architecture have been exp…

  • Green Façade/Roofs Design Tool

    Climate change and related thermal issues, draw attention to the impact of green facades and roofs on energy savings and thermal comfort. Besides, by…

  • 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…

  • Xilinx Case Study

    The transformation of a dark and inhumane 1970s tilt-up concrete office building into a high performance, light-filled modern workplace was enabled b…

  • DC Water Headquarters Case Study

    Facades must be responsive to a myriad of qualities and influences ranging from urban impact and aesthetic character to numerous performance requirem…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Daylighting Post-Occupancy Evaluation Study

    Daylighting is a key strategy to energy efficiency and improved occupant comfort, health, and productivity in buildings. However, providing desired a…

  • Design Considerations and the Complex Facade

    The design of complex, high-performance facades involves balancing attention towards principles of material selection, thermal and moisture protectio…

  • Separating Direct From Diffuse

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