Autonomous or Appropriate
This paper examines two profoundly different design approaches: one, herein called ‘autonomous’, where the building’s design is governed by internal …
16 results
-
-
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 …
-
Doubling Mies
Mies van der Rohe’s concurrently designed projects for Commonwealth Promenade Apartments (1953-1956) and the Esplanade Apartments (1953-1957), saw th…
-
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…
-
Air Spaces Changed Everything
This abstract proposes that architectural facade design over the last 60 years has convulsed in light of two disruptions: air spaces which create ven…
-
Nested Density
Projecting imagery onto building facades is not only becoming a marketing necessity for successful urban spectacles but is also altering social urban…
-
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…
-
Teaching Facades
As facades become more sophisticated and complex, more detail-intensive and performance-critical, it's vital that architecture students develop a dee…
-
Transformation as Movement
In 1888 the art historian Heinrich Wölfflin proposed the notion that the primary characteristic of baroque architecture is the illusion of movement. …
-
Structuring Skin
Curtain wall is the prevailing type of enclosure on modern buildings because of its economy, its independence from structure that allows flexibility …
-
Thinking About Facades
There have been three decades of liberating developments in the application of descriptive geometry and freeform design methods, as well as the abili…
-
Historical Evolution of Responsive Facades
Responsive facade system is considered a major component of high-performance building envelope that is capable of responding to environmental stimuli…
-
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…
-
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 …
-
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…
-
Vertical Louvered Solar Control
Exterior shading devices, when typically used, are horizontal planes that are most effective at the south face of buildings in the northern hemispher…
