60 results

  • Coupling Facade and Structure featured image

    Coupling Facade and Structure

    Traditional approach for engineering the facade is building an isolated analysis model. However, it inhibits a dynamic design process where architect…

  • Parametric Louver System

    The Parametric Louver System is a customized tool that expedites several design iterations while embedding multiple design parameters. The ambition o…

  • Teaching Facades

    As facades become more sophisticated and complex, more detail-intensive and performance-critical, it's vital that architecture students develop a dee…

  • 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…

  • Seismic Design of Jumbo Glass Structures featured image

    Seismic Design of Jumbo Glass Structures

    The design of structural glass systems continues to evolve with the parallel development of new manufacturing technology. Improvements in the manufac…

  • Unitized Curtain Wall

    Unitized curtain wall has become ubiquitous in contemporary facade design and construction due to advantages associated with speed of erection, lower…

  • 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 …

  • Heat-Treated Glass

    What was once an accepted reality in heat-treated exterior glass, optical disturbances in glass are under increasing scrutiny by developers, designer…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Smart Colored Window Technology

    Traditional architecture can be a valuable source of inspiration for designers. Sustainable design concepts in traditional architecture have been exp…

  • Managing Constraints

    On a commercial high-rise tower project located in Hong Kong, the design team was challenged to make a facade that would beneficial to tenants with a…

  • HydroSKIN

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

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Integrated Energy Analysis

    Energy codes across the country are progressively getting stricter and increasing the threshold for a baseline building’s energy performance. Califor…

  • Solid Surface Material for Facades featured image

    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…