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…
82 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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Stainless Steel 101
This paper presents a summary of the industry advances beyond T304 and T316 austenitic stainless steels. The greater availability of precipitation ha…
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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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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…
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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…
