60 results

  • 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

  • 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…
  • Form Follows Well-Being featured image

    Form Follows Well-Being

    Recent planning recognizes a growing demand for buildings that provide higher levels of occupant well-being. Often, well-being in buildings is…
  • Inside the Box featured image

    Inside the Box

    The trend towards modular and unitized facades continues to grow in popularity due largely in part to the efficiencies gained in terms of cost and…
  • 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

  • Parametric Louver System featured image

    Parametric Louver System

    The Parametric Louver System is a customized tool that expedites several design iterations while embedding multiple design parameters. The ambition…
  • Stainless Steel 101

    This paper presents a summary of the industry advances beyond T304 and T316 austenitic stainless steels. The greater availability of precipitation

  • 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.

  • Thinking About Facades featured image

    Thinking About Facades

    There have been three decades of liberating developments in the application of descriptive geometry and freeform design methods, as well as the…
  • Retrofit Options for Historic Facades featured image

    Retrofit Options for Historic Facades

    Building design criteria requires that government buildings be designed for a variety of extreme loads including blast, hurricane, and impact…
  • Novel Techniques for Facade Optimization

    Complex freeform architectural enclosures are becoming increasingly popular and easy to model and design with the help of modern computational tools.

  • In Factory Commissioning

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

  • Historical Evolution of Responsive Facades featured image

    Historical Evolution of Responsive Facades

    Responsive facade system is considered a major component of high-performance building envelope that is capable of responding to environmental stimuli…
  • Daylighting Post-Occupancy Evaluation Study featured image

    Daylighting Post-Occupancy Evaluation Study

    Daylighting is a key strategy to energy efficiency and improved occupant comfort, health, and productivity in buildings. However, providing desired…
  • Challenges of Tall Iconic Building Retrofit featured image

    Challenges of Tall Iconic Building Retrofit

    Change happens, for better or for worse, to all living and physical matter. In order to thrive and achieve longevity, we constantly need to adapt to…
  • Adaptable Glazing Shields

    Today, about 40% of all buildings in the U.S. still have single-pane windows, and ~70% of the existing building stock is estimated to suffer from

  • Infinite Panel System featured image

    Infinite Panel System

    Today, building facades are expected to do much more than merely provide shelter, which is driving the need for higher performing envelope solutions.…
  • Facade Mock-ups

    Curtain walls and window walls are typically specified to meet a variety of different performance and testing criteria, some of which can be quite

  • End-of-Life Challenges in Facade Design

    In recent decades, there has been increased attention to reduce the operational energy performance of buildings. Stringent legislation on building