There is history to this new enterprise. Facade Tectonics started as a series of invited roundtable discussions at the University of Southern California School of Architecture in 2007 as a strategic response to the escalating importance and complexity of building facade technology. These roundtable
Precast Concrete Enclosures is an elective course taught by Assistant Professor Pablo Moyano Fernandez at Washington University in St. Louis. The primary goal of the course is to enable students to envision and materialize full-scale building envelopes using precast concrete.
Well, here we are well into the new year, for better or worse only time will tell. It seems that adversity fails to slow the clock; I don’t know about all of you, but certainly for me and others I’ve talked with time continues to flow at speed, perhaps even accelerating.
The Facade Tectonics Institute will convene its second World Congress on March 12-13, 2018, in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California. The theme of this year’s conference, “Skins on Campus: Bridging Industry and Academia in Pursuit of Better Buildings and Urban Habitat,” focuses on the
The Architectural Glass Institute (AGI) of Philadelphia, Pa., sponsored its second annual Architectural Glass Student Design Competition in January, where third-year Jefferson University architecture students competed to design glass learning pods.
With an ever-growing interest in mid- and high-rise mass timber construction, this paper highlights the insights and lessons learned across global ma…
ACAW is a hands-on research and development workshop for architects and facade engineers to explore the use of terra cotta in high-performance facade design.
Dive deeper into the top papers from the 2020 World Congress! We invite you to tune in to the third episode of the series with Rebecca Hartwell, PhD Candidate at the University of Cambridge, who will be speaking about her winning paper, "End-of-Life Challenges in Facade Design."
Daylighting is a key strategy to energy efficiency and improved occupant comfort, health, and productivity in buildings. However, providing desired a…
This article is based on an interview with two of my current PhD students, Sunčića (Sunny) Milošević and Hossam Mahmoud. Sunny is an architectural designer and Hossam is a practicing mechanical engineer.
Building envelopes cover a considerable part of the urban exterior surfaces, and to therefore have a significant leverage effect on the climate resil…
Connections, those transitions between systems and materials, are critically important when the surfaces are curved or complex. Well-designed connect…
For architects, designers, engineers, manufacturers, consultants, and owners' representatives interested in methods for designing high-performance facades.
Performance attributes are gradually eclipsing those of appearance as people-centric and zero-impact design comes to dominate practices of buildings and urban habitat. Doug Noble has a message for those interested in preparing for a leadership role in the emerging future of the built environment.
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 …
Contemporary building practice represents a disconnect between traditional manufacturing techniques, that favor straight runs and orthogonal geometri…
IBPC 2021 unites researchers, practitioners, educators and students from the construction sector worldwide. The conference will be held online!
This paper proposes system concepts and fabrication methods for the use of ultra-thin glass in facades. It documents the team's research on ultra-thi…