295 results

  • Blast Performance

    Designing for blast performance for glazing units can be very complex. The test methods for evaluating performance include subjecting units to actual…
  • Environmental Facade Perspective featured image

    Environmental Facade Perspective

    Designing a sustainable rainscreen wall assembly has become an essential part of most new construction projects. Industry principles and energy codes…
  • Adaptive Building Envelope featured image

    Adaptive Building Envelope

    Designing a multi-functional building envelope as an architectural façade, environmental interface and solar collector is a multi-objective…
  • Thermoelectric Facades

    This article discusses design, prototype development and a simulation study of novel types of facade systems, which integrate thermoelectric (TE)

  • 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

  • Systems Thinking

    This paper surveys facade design education in accredited Bachelor and Master of Architecture (B.Arch and M.Arch) programs in the United States. A

  • Geometric Patterns as Architectural Forms

    Facade design is a key component of architectural expression, and increasingly a key design consideration due to growing importance of factors like:

  • Silicone Spandrel Glass Opacifiers

    Curtain wall design commonly uses insulating glass units for vision and spandrel glazing to provide better visual harmonization of building facade

  • 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…
  • Towards Net Zero Enclosures

    As architects and designers we understand the urgency of addressing the building sector’s role in the ongoing environmental crisis. Architecture2030

  • Doubling Mies featured image

    Doubling Mies

    Mies van der Rohe’s concurrently designed projects for Commonwealth Promenade Apartments (1953-1956) and the Esplanade Apartments (1953-1957), saw…
  • Duplex Stainless Steel Cladding

    It was a challenging design problem: supply a sustainable material for roofing, soffit and fascia panels that would perform in close proximity to the

  • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston featured image

    Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

    Steven Holl Architects designed two new buildings in the Museum District in Houston, Texas. Knippers Helbig is the facade consultant of both…
  • Contextual Envelopes featured image

    Contextual Envelopes

    Aesthetic and technical capabilities of facade design have become seemingly endless as building technologies progress. While the capacity to address…
  • Autonomous or Appropriate

    This paper examines two profoundly different design approaches: one, herein called ‘autonomous’, where the building’s design is governed by internal

  • 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

  • BioFacades Classification

    Coauthors: Mary Ben Bonham, Department of Architecture + Interior Design, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA [corresponding] [presenting at the…
  • Printed Facades?

    While additive manufacturing (AM) offers unprecedented freedom of design and a remarkable potential for material efficiency and lightweight

  • Air Spaces Changed Everything featured image

    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…
  • Glass Spandrels and Shadow Boxes

    Glass spandrels are a common design strategy utilized to opacify floor levels in building facades. These opaque glass assemblies are integrated into