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…
116 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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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…
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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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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…
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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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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…
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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…
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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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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 …
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Novel Active Facade Systems and Their Energy Performance in Commercial Buildings
This article presents results of a research study that focuses on understanding energy performance of novel facade systems that integrate thermoelect…
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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…
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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…