488 results

  • Kinematic Structural Glass featured image

    Kinematic Structural Glass

    The structural glass storefront facade at 111 Main Street in Salt Lake City lends itself as a case study in accommodating large building…
  • Contextual Envelopes

    Aesthetic and technical capabilities of facade design have become seemingly endless as building technologies progress. While the capacity to address

  • Honing the Craft

    Finishing of custom-fabricated architectural façade components represents one of the most significant components to their cost. Manually driven

  • Unitized Cavity Wall Design and Implementation

    Double Skin Facades (DSF), constructed from individual aluminum framed curtain wall assemblies, provide a means of achieving acoustic and thermal…
  • Crucial Conversations of Diversity & Inclusion

    In architecture, the façade is often the defining aspect of a building’s appearance, establishing the building’s public persona. From an engineering perspective, the façade is an assembly of building components with a critical impact on a range of performative metrics.

  • Modeling Megapanels

    Large format, steel-stud framed “megapanel” facades with rainscreen cladding create uniquely complicated requirements for digital documentation and

  • 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

  • Inside the Box

    The trend towards modular and unitized facades continues to grow in popularity due largely in part to the efficiencies gained in terms of cost and

  • Bridging the Gap Between Industry and Academia

    Fundamentals of Facade Technology: Jeff Vaglio, a proud Facade Geek and lifelong learning proponent, reports on a hands-on industry/academic collaboration at USC. Education is a core mission of the Facade Tectonics Institute, serving both academia and the building profession.

  • FTI Announces the Inaugural Vitruvian Honors & Awards Program

    The Facade Tectonics Institute is pleased to announce our first biennial Vitruvian Honors & Awards Program, scheduled to take place April 29, 2021 in Los Angeles. The premiere celebration seeks to recognize unprecedented innovation and achievement in the field of facade design and delivery.

  • FTI Extends Abstract Submission Deadline: Topics are Unconstrained!

    The Facade Tectonics Institute announces an extension to the abstract submission period for the call for papers for its 2020 World Congress (FTI WC2020) to be convened in Los Angeles on March 25-26. A significant number of inquiries indicated a perception that paper topics were limited to those

  • Shade and Spectacle

    This paper will look at the different facades of the Elysian Fields apartment building designed by Warren Techentin Architecture [WTARCH] and

  • Shape Memory Alloy Activated Shading featured image

    Shape Memory Alloy Activated Shading

    A novel shading device for facade application was developed by combining innovative geometry elements (twisting cylinders) with a smart use of…
  • Reflections on Views

    Lisa Heschong, a keynote speaker at the Facade Tectonics Institute’s World Congress in October, is a strong proponent for the importance of daylighting and views in all types of buildings, including this excerpt from her recent book, Visual Design in Architecture: Daylight, Vision, and View.

  • ETFE Membrane Envelope Strategies

    Airflow within the cavity of double-skin facades is a key component of adaptive building envelopes which change thermophysical properties to meet