116 results

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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 …

  • 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…

  • Connections – Tolerance, Adjustability, Geometric Accuracy featured image

    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…

  • Pioneering the Structural Terracotta Mullion Façade

    Architects today must explore alternative enclosure materials to meet evolving energy codes and embodied carbon regulations. Terra cotta has been mos…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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 …

  • Adaptive Facades featured image

    Adaptive Facades

    Facade engineering aims at appropriately balancing the demands imposed by the context and the capabilities inherent to the materials, the geometries …

  • Digital Enablement for Manufacturing

    Architectural design freedom achieved on high-end projects currently costs over $1,000/sq. Ft. Building materials have long been relegated to plane s…

  • Thermoelectric Facades featured image

    Thermoelectric Facades

    This article discusses design, prototype development and a simulation study of novel types of facade systems, which integrate thermoelectric (TE) mat…

  • 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…

  • Go Big or Go Home!

    This paper will focus on the design and detailing of large-format glass enclosures intended to maximize transparency using state-of-the-art materials…

  • Advances in Laminated Glass Engineering

    The stability of monolithic glass fins is reasonably well defined; as an elastic material it behaves in a similar manner to other elastic materials s…

  • Effect of Thermal Bridging on Buildings' Energy Performance featured image

    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…

  • Low-Carbon Cladding and Shading Design

    In the last few years, the design community has embraced the challenge of reducing embodied carbon in buildings. Several tools are now available for …

  • Contextualizing Glass and Carbon Impacts

    Climate change goals will require significant improvements in the way buildings are constructed and operated. Building reuse can combat climate chang…

  • 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…