If the tendency is to fill our architecture with all type of gadgets so as to self-produce the energy the users need for their wellbeing, we need to accept that either the building on its global formalisation, or some of the systems being used for its construction, need to integrate those productive gadgets.
Energetic productivity is a design requirement.
Unitized panels: moving from high-technological glass façade systems to a common façade solution with any distribution of openings, and the possibility of different finishing materials.
Once again, this case study illustrates how difficult it is to name and classify the wide range of contemporary façade solutions.
Wood has broken into the local construction sector to stay. Proof of this is that architects no longer boast of using it, to show that they undertake responsible, sustainable work. Instead, they use it because it is the most appropriate material to meet certain design requirements.
What an amazing solution! Covering the façade with an EPDM membrane like a padded jacket or a “boatiné coat”. It’s so obvious, but not common! I only remember one similar solution on the back façade of the Frei Photographic Studio in Weil am Rhein, by Herzog & de Meuron. They also used a waterproof membrane, on that occasion made of asphalt, for the cladding.
It is not easy to solve the façade construction of a building when this facade is supposed to be placed between the edges of the slabs, and yet the slabs all have different perimeters. The distance between a point on the edge of a slab and the equivalent point on the upper slab is therefore always different.
Here we refer to a solution of the kind in the study "Profiled metal sheets for the free design of continuous enclosures". These enclosures reach from the façade to the roof and resort to the same construction system, with on-site profiled metal sheets as the main ally.
They maintain the same façade structure while its performance is improved by using in the renovation contemporary techniques and systems.
An interesting curtain wall passing over the front of the slab at every second floor level. The solar protection adds complexity. A good example to illustrate different fixing mechanisms.
From a constructional point of view, this façade solution is quite similar to the one which the same architects have used in the office building in 22@. We just want to highlight the effectiveness that these mouldings may have if we compare them to those used in the building mentioned previously.