Facade Studies

Tectonics and Materiality

In Collaboration With Elias Ahmadi, Saranagan Sinnarajah

Instructors: Maxi Spina | David Ross

The seminar joint areas of investigation are Tectonic -understood as architecture’s material anatomy and its effects- and Performance -largely consisting of technical, technological, and cultural environmental dimensions. The class focuses predominantly on the curtain wall -particularly on its forms of articulation and modes of assembly. As a tectonic concept, it occupies the territory that is made possible by frame structures, which is a tectonic alternative to load-bearing solid walls, and addresses both the “free plan” and the free facade”, two of Le Corbusier’s five points. Taking apart and documenting the anatomy and tectonics of a chosen precedent in order to formulate a series of hypothesis in an attempt to construct a number of interrelated tectonic conjectures. Analysis and documentation are followed by a speculative exercise on how to modify one element or sub-system so as to adapt to a slightly altered design scenario constrained by a newly imposed performance criteria given by the instructors.