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.
In this first 2022 issue of SKINS, we pause to look back on 2021 through our most-read stories of the year, which we’ve recycled here in case you missed them. The very first thing we see is the inaugural Vitruvian Honors & Awards (VH&A) program conducted virtually. It was a spectacular event!
Precast Concrete Enclosures is an elective course taught by Assistant Professor Pablo Moyano Fernandez at Washington University in St. Louis. The primary goal of the course is to enable students to envision and materialize full-scale building envelopes using precast concrete.
Today the design professions still struggle to understand the nature of research in our work. There is a systemic lack of clarity in defining research in design and developing metrics to evaluate the value behind design interventions and applications
It’s that time of year as the holidays approach and heating bills climb. Next to moisture control, thermal behavior has occupied the top spot in performance considerations of the facade system for many years now. So how are we doing? Not so hot!
Dr. Helen Sanders has donned the mantle of leadership as President of the Facade Tectonics Institute. Dr. Sanders replaces Mic Patterson, the Institute’s inaugural President since its founding.
As an industry, we talk a lot about collaboration but the walk, not so much. This ceramics workshop is a stellar example of industry/academic/professional collaboration and worthy of the highest praise. We need more of this!
The recent Forum— Outside the Lines: Building Facades Redefine Urban Living in NYC —hosted by the Ornamental Metals Institute of New York was a rousing event that featured what is certainly among the best speaker programs ever organized by the Facade Tectonics Institute.
The façade system is a potent potential lever for bringing transformative change to buildings and urban habitat in the pursuit of carbon reduction and net zero carbon goals. Nothing in architecture combines attributes of appearance and performance as does the building façade.
Ever-increasing performance requirements in the latest version of the energy codes are compelling project teams to consider the thermal performance of the building envelope more rigorously than ever before.
Technoform recently embarked on a research project with the University of Massachusetts Amherst and are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with academia. We believe that building strong partnerships and networks that lead to shared results progresses the industry.
On October 26th and 27th, the Facade Tectonics Institute assembled a world-class lineup of building facade specialists at the CTBUH 2015 International Conference in New York City.
The Millennium IGU: A Regenerative Concept for a 1000 Year Insulated Glass Unit is an ongoing series published by the Advanced Technology Studio of Enclos examining the undesirable lifecycle impacts associated with conventional IGU production, use and disposal.
Metal-framed glazed enclosures define contemporary architecture. But as our 20th century building stock continues to age, the restoration, rehabilitation and replacement of underperforming facades has created a specialized field of physicists and preservationists.
I remember taking a career test when I was in middle school. The outcome? I had a supposed interest in becoming a forest ranger. This seemed odd to me--in that I lived in a large metropolitan city and had never been in a forest.
This article is based on an interview with two of my current PhD students, Sunčića (Sunny) Milošević and Hossam Mahmoud. Sunny is an architectural designer and Hossam is a practicing mechanical engineer.
A question for architects and building industry: Can our cities be part of the solution to the challenges facing humanity, or are they intrinsically and inevitably a big part of the problem? To move beyond the latter demands nothing less than a fundamental shift in the way we think about buildings.
As global temperatures continue to rise, researchers are examining the building envelope’s impact on climate-specific guidelines to create a more sustainable built environment.
Awareness of embodied carbon impacts is surging like hurricane-driven floodwaters and altering the landscape of everything in its path. What are the implications for buildings, the facade system and urban habitat? FTI is taking this on with its 2019 Forum series.