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…
59 results
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Modern Heritage and Facade Improvements
Approximately 80% of our total building stock is from the 20th century. During the last decades, along with an increasing appreciation of modern arch…
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Reduce, Reuse, Reclad
Kintsukuroi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with powdered precious metal, is a practice of celebrating the life and history of an objec…
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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 ti…
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Multi Layer Facades
The history of high performance facades and glazing has been a tale of attempting to manage the conflicting requirements of, on one hand inviting con…
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Saving Face
In 1871, a fourth level Architecture course was offered in New York City that instructed on topics such as heating, ventilation and circulation of wa…
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Form as Energy
All too often, high-performance building envelopes are considered in terms of new materials and technologies that push specific systems to improve en…
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The First Triple Certified Facade
Johnson Controls (JCI), a leading provider of intelligent building technology solicited the design of a 35,000sm headquarters for its Asia-Pacific Re…
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Localized Rigidification of PCM Envelopes
This is an experimental and computational exploration of structural systems that transform between states of rigidity and flexibility. The goal is to…
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Adaptive Building Envelope
Designing a multi-functional building envelope as an architectural façade, environmental interface and solar collector is a multi-objective explorati…
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Algorithmic Patterns for Facade Design
Recently, building envelopes have been exhibiting complex shapes and patterns, a trend supported by current digital technologies. Likewise, the desig…
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Prototyping with Ultra-Thin Glass
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…
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Catalytic Conversion
Nowadays, the power of images is seductive. Bold and complex facades often have an innovative appearance but superficial tectonic depth; experiential…
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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 shape-…
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Facade Expansion Joint Systems
As awareness around the seismic performance of buildings grows, it is becoming increasingly necessary to integrate seismic expansion joint cover syst…
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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…
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Academic Wood Tower Choreography
With an ever-growing interest in mid- and high-rise mass timber construction, this paper highlights the insights and lessons learned across global ma…
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Geometric Patterns as Architectural Forms
Facade design is a key component of architectural expression, and increasingly a key design consideration due to growing importance of factors like: …
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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 …