135 results

  • The Myth of Simplicity

    There were good why reasons early US Modernism first evolved in California– wide open sites with no constraints (physical or zoning), and effectively…

  • Ballistic and Blast Integrated Design featured image

    Ballistic and Blast Integrated Design

    Increased security needs have led to a demand in enhanced curtain wall facade performance. In addition to thermal, acoustic, and structural requireme…

  • Facade with Innovation featured image

    Facade with Innovation

    Shanshui City and Star Bund Center can be considered as representative projects of RFR Shanghai recently Both provide creative solutions for complex …

  • Novel Thermal Break Solution featured image

    Novel Thermal Break Solution

    Thermal-break-blanket technology is a novel and high-performance thermal break solution for aluminum curtain walls. The thermal-break-blanket is inst…

  • Climate-Oriented Prefabricated Building Envelopes

    Facades developed in response to climactic factors increase performance and human comfort while reducing energy loads. A single building envelope wil…

  • Evaluating The Environmental Performance Of Stick Curtain Wall Systems

    The construction industry is one of the greatest sources of pollution, where 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions are attributed to building…

  • Working With Big Data

    Big data is having a noticeable impact on enclosure engineering design. With continuing advancements that liberate the geometrical form and the incre…

  • Renewing Two Saarinen Icons featured image

    Renewing Two Saarinen Icons

    Kresge Auditorium and the MIT Chapel, designed by Eero Saarinen and built in 1955, are both world renowned works of architecture and powerful symbols…

  • Embodied Carbon Of Timber Unitized Curtain Wall featured image

    Embodied Carbon Of Timber Unitized Curtain Wall

    The building envelope is at the intersection of embodied and operational emissions. Curtain wall specifically could play an important role in reducin…

  • Solid Surface Material for Facades

    Navigating the building code, while challenging in any respect, can be even trickier when considering the use of emerging materials on building facad…

  • Retroreflective Coating for Window Blinds featured image

    Retroreflective Coating for Window Blinds

    Solar shading devices are required to find a trade-off between conflicting requirements: Protection from excessive solar gains and glare, daylight pr…

  • 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…

  • Shadow Box Design

    Shadow boxes are commonly used in curtain wall construction, but can be problematic if not designed and detailed correctly and appropriately for the …

  • 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…

  • The Facade and Energy Codes

    Ever-increasing performance requirements in the latest version of the energy codes are compelling project teams to consider the thermal performance o…

  • Data-Driven Shading Systems

    Analyzing the energy performance of complex building envelopes, determining the need for sun protection, and assessing the effectiveness of shading d…

  • Thermal Performance of Closed Cavity Facades

    Closed cavity facades (CCF), a configuration of Double Skin Facade (DSF), consists of a double-glazed unit on the inner layer and single glazing on t…

  • Vintage Vinyl featured image

    Vintage Vinyl

    Mid-century through 1980’s buildings with lock-strip or “zipper-gasket” glazing systems are an ever present part of the urban landscape in many citie…