Proof of this are three strategies that try to get back to the massive cladded wall. In the case of the stone-clad concrete wall, the massive nature of the enclosure is not only apparent but real. In the two other examples, the massive character is an illusion, a well-created illusion for the eyes only, do not knock into it.
Closed joints claddings (134)
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Closed joints claddings (134)
When architects switched from the wet-built, heavy brick outer layer in rain screen façades to hanging light claddings, the formal possibilities of rain screen façades increased exponentially. A range of cuttings, cladding materials, textures and colours could be used.
After a few decades exploring these formal possibilities, it is as if the system was exhausted.
We are now tired of this image of overlapped skin. Its fragility and thinness, expressed through the open joints, are today its greatest disadvantage. We miss the wall; not necessarily a loadbearing wall, but at least massive.
