18 results

  • Lightweight Veneer in High-rise Unitized Facades featured image

    Lightweight Veneer in High-rise Unitized Facades

    Manufactured veneer panels such as glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC), ultra high performance concrete (UHPC), sintered stone, and terracotta are…

  • Transitions Between Diverse Envelope Systems featured image

    Transitions Between Diverse Envelope Systems

    The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California features an extremely diverse set of facade systems within one…

  • When Facades Kill featured image

    When Facades Kill

    The tragic fire of June 14, 2017 at the Grenfell Tower in London, England has brought to a very public global forum issues related to the impact of f…

  • Lithic Revival featured image

    Lithic Revival

    The recently completed Capital One Hall performing arts center located in the Washington DC metro area is defined by a pleated exterior of glass and …

  • In Factory Commissioning featured image

    In Factory Commissioning

    Factory inspection visits are vital, yet they unfortunately have a habit of being overlooked. The factory inspection process during the Building Enve…

  • The Myth of Simplicity featured image

    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…

  • Preserving a Historic Facade featured image

    Preserving a Historic Facade

    Environmental and socio-economic benefits of sustainable preservation have become apparent most recently in the restoration of the historic former Ma…

  • Air Spaces Changed Everything

    This abstract proposes that architectural facade design over the last 60 years has convulsed in light of two disruptions: air spaces which create ven…

  • Transformation as Movement featured image

    Transformation as Movement

    In 1888 the art historian Heinrich Wölfflin proposed the notion that the primary characteristic of baroque architecture is the illusion of movement. …

  • Kinematic Structural Glass featured image

    Kinematic Structural Glass

    The structural glass storefront facade at 111 Main Street in Salt Lake City lends itself as a case study in accommodating large building displacement…

  • Modeling Megapanels featured image

    Modeling Megapanels

    Large format, steel-stud framed “megapanel” facades with rainscreen cladding create uniquely complicated requirements for digital documentation and 3…

  • Ginza Six

    Tokyo’s prestigious Ginza District, is home to innovative architectural design. One of the most recent examples is Ginza Six (GSIX), the largest comm…

  • The Craft of Building Enclosures featured image

    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…

  • Optimized Adaptive Re-Use

    Contemporary building practice represents a disconnect between traditional manufacturing techniques, that favor straight runs and orthogonal geometri…

  • An Energy-harvesting Building Facade featured image

    An Energy-harvesting Building Facade

    In order to reduce energy consumption throughout the whole life-cycle of buildings and increase the comfort performance of building sectors, an energ…

  • Saving Face

    In 1871, a fourth level Architecture course was offered in New York City that instructed on topics such as heating, ventilation and circulation of wa…

  • Facade Wind Loading featured image

    Facade Wind Loading

    Wind induced pressure is a major design consideration for building facades. However, the effects of facade geometry and urban terrain on wind loading…

  • All-Glass Bearing Facades featured image

    All-Glass Bearing Facades

    The Green Village at the TU Delft is a living lab for sustainable innovations. The Co Creation Centre (CCC) will be their new meeting center (13.5 x …