Facade Tectonics SKINS : April 2022

Next normal: Advanced composites for a changing industry - Bill Kreysler

Modern chemistry, analytics, material science, and other disciplines are causing an avalanche of new materials available to our industry. One of those, and one that has brought disruption to several other industries including the marine, transportation, aerospace, sports and recreation industries, is commonly referred to as “advanced composites”. Advanced composites—or composites, a term we’ll use throughout this issue, is a family of materials that take the “string and glue” principle utilized in Neolithic times with straw and clay, or more recently with steel and concrete, to a new family of highly refined materials made by combining natural or manmade fibers with synthetic resins.

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Featured

America's Cup racing yacht American Dream flying over the water.

Performance

Designing With Composites: The Why, When and How

More than 30 years ago as a windsurfing nut and an engineering student I was building windsurf boards and became enthralled with composites. It was the intrigue of what structures you can make with. Composite use ranges from the most sophisticated fighter jets in the world to hot tubs.

Sail Away.

Practice

Thermal and Fire Characteristics of FRP Composites for Architectural Applications

The advantages and challenges for FRP in architectural applications as discussed in our 2015 paper are still very much true today. As the advantages of FRP are discussed comprehensively elsewhere in this issue of SKINS, I will focus my comments on FRP fire behavior.

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Sustainability

Connecting Composites to Sustainability: Probabilistic LCA, Industrialized Construction, and Digital Twinning

Material flows of the fossil fuel industry, from exploration and extraction to distribution and combustion, are massive on a global scale. In 2019, the world produced approximately 80 million barrels of crude oil per day, with most being used as a feedstock for combustible fuels.

Read On.

Research

Tectonism and Responsible Urban Futures

We at Zaha Hadid Architects Computation and Design group (ZHACODE) explore the relevance of this resource-effective, experience-rich design and construction paradigm to both large institutional projects with complex geometry and mass-customization, repeated unit projects with assembly complexities.

Find Out More.

Fabrication

Color Matching and Control for the Fabricator

At Kreysler & Associates, the most commonly seen issues with color are due to processing and incoming material. Controlling temperature, initiator percent, atomizing air pressure and release agent will help minimize color variation.

Credit: Composites Manufacturing magazine published by the American Composites Manufacturers Association

More Information.

Get Involved

Technology | Architecture + Design (TAD) - Call for Papers

The Editorial Board of Technology | Architecture + Design (TAD) would like to share its current Call for Papers and invite contributions for the upcoming TECTONICS issue. Submissions may choose to address the focus area identified in this call for papers.

Submit Your Paper.

2020 World Congress Paper Spotlight

Passive House Facade Design and Construction

Architect Louis Koehl presented Passive House Façade Design and Construction at the 2020 World Congress. Passive House principles include a comprehensive approach to façade design that results in a highly efficient building envelope. This approach considers thermal conductivity, solar heat gain, airtightness, vapor control, window performance, and aesthetics.

Discover more.

Industry Calendar

April 14

2022 Glass and Glazing Forum

7020 Slauson Ave, Commerce, USA

May 11

Facade Tectonics Forum: NYC

New York, United States

July 6-8

ICSA 2022

Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

October 12-13

Facade Tectonics 2022 World Congress

Los Angeles, United States

Previously Featured

Climate

Sir David King addresses Climate Change

The Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University was founded by Sir David King. King leads a team of scientists and researchers working on solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, and restore parts of the climate system that already pose risk to humanity. As the keynote speaker at the Façade Tectonics Institute’s Vitruvian Awards, he elaborates on the history of climate change.

Watch the Video.

COP26 Take Aways

McKinsey hosted a roundtable at the COP 26 Climate Change Conference to discuss the outcome of the Conference, especially related to decarbonizing the built environment. These discussions are captured in an article written by Tony Hansen, Focko Imhorst, Anna Moore, and Sebastian Reiter.

Articles

Emissions Limits Critical to Climate Initiatives

There have been 26 Conferences on Climate Change sponsored by the United Nations. The most recent conference, COP 26, was held in 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. With 200 countries in attendance, all eyes were set on achieving the goal of limiting the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. While discussions were held on helping countries adapt to the effects of climate change, financing, and collaboration, emission reductions were specifically targeted as a means of climate change mitigation.

Read the Article.

Codes & Standards

Biden Introduces building performance act limiting CO2 emissionsco

In 2022, U.S. President Biden launched the Building Performance Standards Coalition, a coalition of states and local governments committed to strengthening building performance standards. While there are different environmental challenges at the state and local level, the Coalition is dedicated to inclusive design and implementation of building standards.