Flooring can either make or break a space. With the proper design, it can enhance a room’s design, mark a good first impression and positively impact user experience. However, because floors must withstand damaging conditions such as exposure to moisture and heat, constant foot traffic and heavy furniture movement, it is only natural for them to degrade over time. As a result, renovating floors is crucial to maintain interiors in a good state, especially those with a lot of use.
While selecting a new material to replace the old surface, building owners, architects and designers must consider many key factors, such as comfort, durability and aesthetics. But when it comes to buildings where daily functions are carried out and thus cannot be closed for long periods of time – like supermarkets, offices and restaurants –, speed of installation often becomes the top priority. Ultimately, as the old saying goes, “time is money.”
When browsing the 3D printing tag on ArchDaily, it is clear that this technology has developed at an incredibly fast pace. If in the early years we observed the concept as a distant possibility for the future or with small-scale examples, in recent years we have observed entire printed buildings and increasingly complex volumes being produced. Developed by reading a computer file, the fabrication is carried out through additive manufacturing with concrete - or other construction materials - and presents numerous difficulties in providing an efficient process that enables the constructive technique to become widespread. The pavilion printed by the Huizenprinters consortium, for example, illustrates this process well.
Contemporary challenges and developments in technology inevitably trigger changes in the way we design and build our cities. SUMMARY, one of ArchDaily's Best New Practices of 2021, is a Portuguese architecture studio focused on the development of prefabricated and modular building systems. Striking a balance between pragmatism and experimentalism, the firm develops prefabricated solutions in order to respond to a driving challenge of contemporary architecture—to speed up and simplify the construction process. Founded in 2015 by the architect Samuel Gonçalves, a graduate of the School of Architecture of the University of Porto, the studio has presented at prominent events such as the 2016 Venice Biennale. We talked with Samuel about the firm's practical experience in prefabrication and modulation, as well as their experiments and forays into research.
In most countries around the world, value is placed on older buildings. There’s something about the history, originality, and charm of an older home that causes their value to sometimes be higher than newly constructed projects. But in Japan, the opposite is almost always the preference. Newly-built homes are the crux of a housing market where homes are almost never sold and the obsession with razing and rebuilding is as much a cultural thing as it is a safety concern, bringing 30-year-old homes to a valueless market.
Metal façades give buildings an air of sophistication and modernity. They also bring a cleanness to the façade, due to their precise fabrication and well-resolved connections between other materials and building elements. There are currently multiple product options available for coatings, offering extensive colour options, including metallics, with different levels of durability (natural aging and corrosion). One of the main issues when approaching metal façades is the risk of corrosion, which can create points of weakness in the material and interfere with the aesthetics of the building. So, with this in mind, what do architects need to focus on to ensure that building envelopes age gracefully, while maintaining aesthetics and performance over time?
Cladding systems have important functions in buildings. They can confer thermal insulation, protect internal spaces from the weather and–just as important–give the building a "face", improving its appearance and clearly identifying the element of design. "Cladding" refers to the components that are linked to the structure of a building to form non-structural external surfaces. While in the past wooden cladding was the only option, there are currently multiple possibilities of materials, colors, weights, textures, anchoring systems, and many other variables available. Below, we outline some of the main materials used for façade cladding, and the projects that use them in a remarkable way:
Cortesia de S'Winter Station - Ryerson University – Department of Architectural Science
The construction industry has experienced severe changes in recent decades. Historically, it counted on abundant labor and a false notion that natural resources were infinite, but nowadays the sector has struggled to find innovations that will allow it to become more sustainable, especially considering its enormous impact and importance in the world. In addition, the recent Covid-19 pandemic changed several factors and dynamics, demanding creativity from designers to overcome challenges. In some cases, the design process itself became subject to changes. The S'Winter Station project, developed by students and teachers of Ryerson University's Department of Architectural Science, is one of these examples which relied on existing visualization and manufacturing technology for its completion.
Cube / HENN Dresden University of Technology. Courtesy of Iurii Vakaliuk
Seen as one of the great promises for the future of construction, carbon concrete mixes strength, lightness and flexibility. In addition, at a time marked by a serious environmental crisis that puts the construction methods of the industry in check, carbon concrete emerges as an alternative that approaches the guidelines of sustainability.
Whether blending in or standing out, embodying transparency or solidity, expressing coarseness or softness, a façade is the medium through which we engage with architecture. It tells a story and can often set the tone for the rest of the interior. But apart from defining a purely visual experience, a building’s envelope must also be practical, durable and have the ability to properly manage natural lighting and ventilation needs. After all, by being the point of contact with the outside, it is responsible for mitigating sounds and providing protection from climatic conditions, such as wind, rain, heat and humidity. Therefore, when designing a facade, it is important to consider a balance between performance and a beautiful aesthetic. Of course, many materials successfully meet these criteria. But when it comes to creating a comforting, light-filled ambiance while ensuring resistance, ease of installation and versatility, the properties of translucent polycarbonate panels seem to be unparalleled.
One of the first elements used by humans to build shelters, wood is a versatile material that, along with technological advances, remains a protagonist in the construction industry, being used in different ways and moments in a work.
As with any industry, most skills are acquired through years of hands-on working and problem solving, and not just what's taught at school. For fresh architecture graduates, engaging with general contractors, engineers, and builders during their first site visits might feel overwhelming, especially since they are exploring the practical side of the practice.
Among the many things acquired on site are the terminologies used by construction workers that may not have been necessarily taught at school. And while an architecture dictionary might seem like the most suitable solution, carrying around a book with over 25,000 terms such as Cyril M Harris' Dictionary of Architecture and Construction wouldn't be the most convenient on a construction site. This is why we have put together list of 50 construction terms and concepts that every architect will come across at least once during their practice.
Among the many difficulties that the construction industry currently faces, confronting the climate emergency continues to be one of the main challenges. In fact, considering that the sector is responsible for around 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, aiming towards net-zero, carbon-neutral architecture should and must be the top priority. Although there is a long way to go for most buildings to cancel out the amount of carbon dioxide they produce, the concept is quickly gaining traction and will certainly become the new norm as we look into the not-too-distant future. As a result, the following question arises: how can architects, designers and other actors involved in the industry contribute to sustainable design and net-zero architecture?
Construction technology company ICON unveiled its newest 3D-printed project, “House Zero”, designed by Texas-based firm Lake|Flato Architects. The project is the first in ICON’s “Exploration Series,” which seeks to highlight the architectural possibilities enabled by additive construction and develop new design languages with the purpose of “shifting the paradigm of homebuilding”. The material honesty of the house combines the expression of robotic construction processes with the natural wood textures creating a timeless design.
As revolutionary as the construction sector may seem nowadays, it currently accounts for nearly 40% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, 11% of which are a result of manufacturing building materials such as steel, cement, and glass. Fast forward a couple of years later, after a life-changing global pandemic and indisputable evidences of climate change, CO2 emissions are still on a rise, reaching a historical maximum in 2020 according to the 2020 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction. Although a lot of progress has been made through technological advancements, design strategies and concepts, and construction processes, there is still a long way to go to reduce carbon emissions to a minimum or almost zero in the development of built environments.
In each of our nostrils, two types of nerves play an essential role in our health. The olfactory and trigeminal nerves capture odors and send information to the brain, more specifically to the olfactory bulb, for interpretation. In turn, this communicates with the cortex, responsible for the conscious perception of odors, but also with the limbic system, which controls mood and unconscious emotions. This is the body's defense against bad smells or irritating or strong odors, creating aversion to those that could harm us in some way.
But not all pollutants can be detected through this sophisticated system, and they have an intrinsic ability to positively or negatively influence our health. In fact, research has shown that air quality can be quite poor and even worrying in many indoor environments, where we spend about 90% of our lives. This is usually caused by inadequate ventilation of the space, external pollution, and biological contaminants; but mainly chemical contaminants from internal sources. That is, the building materials used in space. Therefore, there are some products that should be avoided whenever possible.
In the original design for the Sydney Opera House, Jørn Utzon envisioned the shells supported by precast concrete ribs under a reinforced concrete structure, which turned out to be prohibitively expensive. As one of the first projects to use computational calculations, the final solution - reached jointly between the architect and the structural engineer - consisted of a precast ribbed system of concrete shells created from sections of a sphere. At the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the project team used CATIA software (typically used by the aerospace industry) to model and materialize the complex curvilinear shapes of the titanium-coated volume designed by Frank Gehry. Challenging projects tend to spark the creativity of those involved to make them possible, but there are constructive systems that interact well with existing technologies. This is the case, for example, with engineered wood and the BIM system. When used simultaneously, they usually achieve highly efficient and sustainable projects.
Founded in late 2017, named one of the "Most Innovative Companies in the World" in 2020, and selected as ArchDaily's Best New Practices of 2021, ICON is a construction company that pushed the boundaries of technology, developing tools to advance humanity including robotics, software, and building materials. Relatively young, the Texas-based start-up has been delivering 3D-printed homes across the US and Mexico, trying to address global housing challenges while also developing construction systems to support future exploration of the Moon, with partners BIG and NASA.
Featured on Times’ Next 100, as one of the 100 emerging leaders who are shaping the future, Jason Ballard, CEO and Co-Founder of ICON spoke to ArchDaily about the inception of the company, worldwide housing challenges, his ever-evolving 3D printing technology, and process, his partnership with BIG, and the future of the construction field on earth and in space.
In terms of Covid, 2022 is more likely to be like 1920 than like 2020 or 2021. “Change or die” is a cliché, but often a true one. The past two years under the pandemic have forced many kinds of changes across society that may have helped prevent a lot of deaths. But many other aspects of our culture had already been changing in ways that predated the pandemic, gradual shifts that, once Covid hit, became instant and ubiquitous: remote work, remote learning, the dominance of online shopping and the death of brick-and-mortar retail, the obsessive focus on health and well-being. All of this, and more, is now a fundamental aspect of our daily lives.
