Sustainable Materials
Stainless steel has been successfully used in building envelopes since the completion of the Chrysler building in 1928. Today, it is used as both a s…
68 results
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Influence of Facade Materials on the Acoustic Environment
Urban noise pollution is a major environmental health problem. International organizations are making efforts to prevent health damage due to high le…
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Sustainable Silicone
Silicone materials have a long history in high performance building projects. Known for durability, they can reduce a building’s carbon footprint by …
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Heat-actuated Auxetic Facades
Highly transformable materials can be used as adaptive exterior shading systems by leveraging the relationship between external stimuli (heat) and re…
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Connections – Tolerance, Adjustability, Geometric Accuracy
Connections, those transitions between systems and materials, are critically important when the surfaces are curved or complex. Well-designed connect…
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The Tectonics of Flimsiness
Architecture has traditionally celebrated the joining of two building components or materials. Joinery serves as a key site for architectural express…
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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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Curved Forming Panel Facades
The performative and visual aspects of curved forming/bending thin “formable” planar materials is explored. Early tests for deflection indicate that …
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Adaptive Facades
Facade engineering aims at appropriately balancing the demands imposed by the context and the capabilities inherent to the materials, the geometries …
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Thermoelectric Facades
This article discusses design, prototype development and a simulation study of novel types of facade systems, which integrate thermoelectric (TE) mat…
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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…
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Effect of Thermal Bridging on Buildings' Energy Performance
Heat transfer through building facades can occur by any combinations of conduction, convection, and/or radiation. Conductive heat transfer depends on…
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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…
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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…
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Optimized Adaptive Re-Use
Contemporary building practice represents a disconnect between traditional manufacturing techniques, that favor straight runs and orthogonal geometri…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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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Collaborative Methodology for Fastracking Challenging Facade Concepts
The goal is to explore the role and methodology employed between the architect and engineer as they look to resolve the opposing demands of design ae…
