69 results

  • The Thermal Blanket Concept featured image

    The Thermal Blanket Concept

    This paper tells the story of a Double Skin Facade (DSF), where high performance and multi-disciplinary collaboration saves a library concept of…
  • Structural Skin

    Many prominent, recent buildings feature forms suggesting structural surface while their enclosures are really non-load-bearing curtain wall. At the

  • Modeling Megapanels

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

  • Facade Expansion Joint Systems

    As awareness around the seismic performance of buildings grows, it is becoming increasingly necessary to integrate seismic expansion joint cover

  • 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…
  • Honing the Craft

    Finishing of custom-fabricated architectural façade components represents one of the most significant components to their cost. Manually driven

  • 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…
  • Effective Facade Modularization

    Facade systems of various transparent and opaque materials and systems are increasingly becoming integrated components of modularized facade…
  • Teaching Facades featured image

    Teaching Facades

    As facades become more sophisticated and complex, more detail-intensive and performance-critical, it's vital that architecture students develop a…
  • Stainless Steel 101 featured image

    Stainless Steel 101

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

  • Unitized Curtain Wall featured image

    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 featured image

    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…
  • 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…
  • Heat-Treated Glass

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

  • 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

  • Smart Colored Window Technology featured image

    Smart Colored Window Technology

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