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Performance driven envelopes
Full text linkThe impact of climate design on architecture is obvious. But design trends are currently attempting to implement climate design merely as an additional item in architectonic planning. The alternative is to start with an architectural attitude that will produce a comprehensively integrated design. To achieve this, design teams must accept the equal importance of all relevant aspects and have an understanding of the demands they make. This Imagine book is related to a series of lectures given at the TU Delft and a workshop in which international professionals and students from various disciplines took part with the intention of creating an ambience deliberately oriented toward the generation of an integrated, performancedriven envelope
Rapids
Full text linkProcesses of construction are related to available technologies of production and assembly. IT has made a deep impact on design possibilities and the control of production logistics, enabling feats such as freeform architecture and increasingly precise elaboration. Alternately, the idea of Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Manufacturing Technology provides the chance to create one-off components and elements for architecture. We now have the opportunity to design and construct without the disadvantages of production resistance and assembly needs - to realise genuine IT-driven architecture
Deflate-ables
Full text linkPneumatic structures have been thoroughly investigated and developed during the 1960s. However, the energy crisis and aesthetic developments stopped the process of employing these structures as a mainstream construction method. Nowadays these structures are typically used in special areas of architecture and design. Imagine-Deflateables concentrates on the very limited knowledge of vacuum constructions and develops a range of aesthetic, technical and functional design possibilities. Until today, there has been a very limited number of designs developed and realized using pressurized constructions – despite the fact that this technology could lead to positive aspects: the air pressure of the earth can be used as a stabilizing and form-giving parameter, creating a specific and inspiring shape. In addition, the very nature of this technology offers varying degrees of thermal and acoustic insulation. There are of course weak points such as potential leakage and the need for high pressurization of the construction; but new material technologies and specific structural concepts will provide solutions to overcome these issues. Exploiting the possibilities of extremely light and, at the same time, energetically active constructions, deflateables are one of the promising fields of architectural and design developments. The chance to create structures that can move and react to requests such as user and climate requirements as well as formative demands, lifts this topic onto the level of a realistic and usable technology for as yet unknown design possibilities
Façades
Full text linkFaçade technology of the 20th century is related to the dissolution of the massive wall into a separation of structure and façade. Looking at the development of façade technology, after 60 years of curtain wall systems, 30 years of element-façade systems and ten years of experience with the integration of environmental services in double façades, it can be concluded that the peak of optimisation has been reached. No further technical developments can be expected by continuing to apply extra layers for each additional technical function. Understanding façades - or better envelopes - as part of an integral building, we have to see that creating the future envelope has to be done on a ’network’ basis: employing systems - but also methods of thinking - which provide the possibility to develop different aspects simultaneously and combine them as required. The envelope has to be seen as a functional part of the entire building, serving a part of the demand by providing the necessary technologies and qualities. In this regard, we have to withdraw from material and structure-orientated thinking and construction – we have to develop the envelope as a hybrid system: materials, technologies and production processes have to be integrated into the summation and combined into an all-encompassing result. Façades comprise various themes covering strategic, material and technological developments. Aspects such as function integration, networking of elements, new structures and materials as well as the addition of functions to existing structures will be investigated and explained in 85 or so concrete ideas