Architectural Ceramic Assemblies

This paper documents a six year academia/industry collaboration between researchers at the Department of Architecture, University at Buffalo (SUNY) and the Boston Valley Terra Cotta Company. For the company, it was an essential undertaking to be able to meet the design challenges in a globally competitive marketplace. For the Department of Architecture, it meant fulfilling the three core tenets of its mission: professional education, advancing the profession through significant research and outreach, and economic development by growing the number and quality of jobs available in Western New York.

The engagement involved faculty and students developing new tools and work flows to facilitate better responses to Boston Valley’s architectural clients. They assisted with the design development phase as well as improving the manufacturing processes that resulted in several award winning building projects. While the faculty taught classes to company employees and set technology agendas with senior management, the students themselves became the real change agents. The factory floor became the proving ground for the introduction of 3D scanning, parametric modeling, digital modeling, 5 axis CNC milling, 3 axis wire cutting, computational fluid dynamics for extrusion die design, post extrusion ruled surface cutting, and numerous CAD/CAM innovations.

Furthermore, the collaboration has expanded beyond specific projects into the annual Architectural Ceramic Assemblies Workshop (ACAW); a forum for a worldwide collective of architects, facade engineers, ceramic artists, architectural manufacturers, university faculty and students to develop bio-climatically responsive facades and surfaces. This week-long eworkshop’s goal is to educate the architectural profession about ceramics, test the state of the art in terra cotta manufacturing and develop new research agendas that can be undertaken through professional, manufacturing and academic partnership.