20 results

  • The Aesthetics of Big Tech

    The San Francisco Bay Area is synonymous with leading edge technology and innovation. Many of the biggest and wealthiest tech giants have huge…
  • Anisotropic Effects in Architectural Glass

    Iridescence effects, quench marks, leopard marks… The names given to optical anisotropy in toughened and heat-strengthened glass are diverse and

  • Nested Density

    Projecting imagery onto building facades is not only becoming a marketing necessity for successful urban spectacles but is also altering social urban

  • Ginza Six

    Tokyo’s prestigious Ginza District, is home to innovative architectural design. One of the most recent examples is Ginza Six (GSIX), the largest

  • Terra Cotta Skins

    This paper will address the potential of ornamental architectural terracotta surfaces to mitigate the effects of climate fluctuations that will

  • Autonomous or Appropriate

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

  • 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:

  • Shaping Skin featured image

    Shaping Skin

    The conventional modern facade is essentially flat, which creates the tendency toward visual monotony and problems for modulating daylight—both on…
  • Facade Games

    This paper provides an overview of a course focusing on the façade as taught to architecture students over a twenty-year period. The need for this

  • 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

  • The Butterfly

    Providing a unique and integral cladding/envelope solution suited for high-rise buildings has been an inherent challenge for this building typology

  • Vertical Louvered Solar Control featured image

    Vertical Louvered Solar Control

    Exterior shading devices, when typically used, are horizontal planes that are most effective at the south face of buildings in the northern…
  • 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.

  • Put Your Sweater On!

    During the particularly cold first months of 1977 President Jimmy Carter, in what some call “The Sweater Speech,” famously noted how much energy

  • Lightning Protection as Building Envelope

    A building’s envelope mitigates the effects of meteorological phenomena – including lightning – upon the structure and its occupants and contents.

  • Hydrophobic Stainless Steel Surfaces

    There is no doubting the longevity of stainless steel building facades. The Chrysler Building and numerous buildings that followed have stood the

  • Contextual Envelopes

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