165 results

  • Combustible Cladding

    When it comes to the subject of building enclosure in Australia, one topic has eclipsed all others in recent years: combustible cladding. It has even…

  • Finally featured image

    Finally

    For over 60 years architects, engineers, and consultants have been specifying stainless steels for use in building skins and in some structural appli…

  • Optimized Adaptive Re-Use featured image

    Optimized Adaptive Re-Use

    Contemporary building practice represents a disconnect between traditional manufacturing techniques, that favor straight runs and orthogonal geometri…

  • End-of-Life Challenges in Facade Design

    In recent decades, there has been increased attention to reduce the operational energy performance of buildings. Stringent legislation on building en…

  • New Challenges – New Facades!

    Being part of the European Façade Network efn, an association of ten research and education entities throughout Europe, I would like to share my experiences of last year’s conferences and research activities with this brief contribution.

  • Systems Thinking

    This paper surveys facade design education in accredited Bachelor and Master of Architecture (B.Arch and M.Arch) programs in the United States. A rev…

  • 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…

  • Environmentally Responsible Wood Cladding

    This case study focuses on the solutions provided for the Bell Museum at the University of Minnesota. Our design team worked with the client to creat…

  • 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…

  • Fixed Edge Supports

    Model building codes and standards in the United States use a probabilistic model to define glass load resistance (LR). In general, these model build…

  • HydroSKIN

    Building envelopes cover a considerable part of the urban exterior surfaces, and to therefore have a significant leverage effect on the climate resil…

  • Cool precast concrete enclosure studies from Washington U. in St. Louis

    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.

  • BuildingNY 2021

    High Performance Façades: Delivering Better Thermal, Safety, and Acoustical Performance, Presented by the Facade Tectonics Institute

  • Multi Layer Facades featured image

    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…

  • ETFE Canopy at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta

    In 2015, Australia’s largest embassy complex in the world was built in Jakarta, Indonesia, to provide an official residence for Australia’s permanent…

  • When Facades Kill

    The tragic fire of June 14, 2017 at the Grenfell Tower in London, England has brought to a very public global forum issues related to the impact of f…

  • Embodied Carbon

    Welcome to this edition of the SKINS newsletter, which is all about carbon! As guest editor this month, I am representing FTI’s embodied carbon (EC) working group. This issue highlights several important topics relative to embodied and the trade-offs with operational carbon.