Pixel Projects: Perforation and Ventilation of the Familiar High-Rise Glass Box

Chris Jarrett

Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia USA

ABSTRACT: New forms of production and materiality, coupled with changing attitudes about the environment are generating a diversity of new ways of working and the workplaces we inhabit. During the last decade, there has been an escalating perforation and ventilation of the familiar “high-rise glass box.” The taught two-dimensional skin is going under radical revision, simultaneously being both thickened and aerated. Once inert, sculptural, symbolic, and essentially unintelligent, the surface of the building is now alive, varying, phenomenal, smart and increasingly interactive. This paper will review the trajectory of this development and present a series of recent applications in the U.S. Conference Topic: Building Skins Keywords: energy-reducing membranes, transparent thick skins, sustainable form

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Inert Skins

Mies van der Rohe, perhaps more than any other modern architect, shaped the space in which Americans worked during the second half of the 20th century, celebrated recently with two seminal exhibits of his work shown in New York, Berlin and Barcelona. [fig. 1]

Fig. 1 Seagram Building, New York, 1958

The compositional and structural purity of the Seagram Building however, Mies’ most noted and influential high-rise office project, paved the way, with too few exceptions, to massive amounts of low-grade, bottom-dollar interpretations. Uncritical usage of 20th c. high-rise infrastructure – the sealed skin, the raised floor, the dropped ceiling, the partition, the hung facade and the hollow chase wall – produced hordes of undifferentiated, energy-consuming thin skins across the U.S. Down-grade versions of the Seagram

has resulted in vast quantities of mirrored thin skins, deep plans, suspended ceilings, and double-loaded windowless corridors, contributing significantly to the global rise in fossil fuel use over the last fifty years, from 1,715 in 1950 to 8,973 in 2001 - million tons of oil equivalent [1]. As well, the increasingly tighter, hermetically sealed high-rise has led to levels of indoor air pollutants today that are shown to be 2 to 5 times higher, and occasionally 100 times higher than the level of pollutants outdoors [2].

But changes in the design industry are afoot. The very nature of work and the high-rise workplaces we inhabit are being challenged. New concepts coupled with smarter skin technologies are producing new cultures of work and new ecologies of the workplace.

2.0 OVERVIEW OF ROLE OF BUILDING SKINS 2.1 Fundamentals

The building skin is the dominant system in all subsystems of a building. It must fulfill a multitude of vital functions and is a principal factor in the energy consumption of a building. Vitally important to the theory, analysis, planning and design of building skins are the interrelationships between function, form, materials and, ever increasingly, ecology. [Fig. 2]

FORM

MATERIALS

FUNCTION

ECOLOGY

Fig. 2 Concerns of Building Skins

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While these categories have remained virtually unchanged throughout history, increased CO2 emissions and the shortage of fossil fuels has elevated sustainability to the top of the agenda in the conceptual planning phases of building skin design. 2.2 Function of Building Skin

Although the façade and roof are subjected to climate stresses to different degrees, their functions are very similar, especially as it relates to energy consumption. [Fig. 3] As such, it is often difficult to distinguish them in the context of function. Given that, the primary functions of the building skin are:

Energy Consumption

Wind Ventilation Humidity Insulation

Sun Protection Radiation

Glare Lighting

Security Fire

Noise Wear Fig. 3 Primary Functions of Building Skin 2.3 Comfort

One of the primary tasks of the building skin is to regulate the prevailing conditions in the surrounding external atmosphere in order to ensure comfortable conditions to the interior.

Since the late 1960’s, internal comfort was still largely a matter of high-performance air-conditioning systems. Since then, with news reports of the environmental price tag associated with oil and coal use, the building skin has become the key factor in efforts to conserve energy.

The potential in decreasing energy consumption has changed our perspective. This is also reflected in the fact, that until recently, most building skins were conceived and designed by architects, sometimes in collaboration with a structural engineer. Today, the climate is very different. Multiple experts collaborate, especially on projects led by progressive clients, working together to optimize the performance capacity of the building skin.

Indoor Ecology Outdoor Ecology

Air Temperature Surface Temp Air Change Relative Humidity Luminance Lighting Intensity

S K I N

Air Temperature Air Movement Relative Humidity Solar Radiation

Fig. 4 Comfort Diagram

The relationship between building skin and climate calls for a precise definition of the term comfort [3]. For these purposes, the main factors for comfort are: 1) indoor air temperature; 2) average surface temperature; 3) air change rates; 4) relative indoor humidity; 5) luminance; 6) lighting intensity [Fig. 4].

All comfort-related parameters, with the exception of relative indoor humidity, have the capacity to be directly controlled and regulated through the design of the skin [façade and roof]. Moveable systems that respond to changing solar altitudes over the course of the day and in different seasons allow for individual control of sunscreen elements, optimal shading and maximum use of daylight [Fig. 5]. Reexamination of the kind and level of information control is driving a new body of environmental work.

Fig. 5 Administration Building, Berlin, 1999 Saurerbach + Hutton Architects 3.0 PERFORATION + VENTILATION 3.1 Infrastructural Skins

During the last decade, there has been an escalating perforation and ventilation of the familiar “high-rise glass box.” The taught two-dimensional skin is going under radical revision simultaneously being both thickened and aerated by the forces of sustainable design thinking. [4]

Once inert, sculptural, symbolic, and essentially unintelligent, the surface of the building is increasingly alive, varying, phenomenal, smart and increasingly interactive. Innovative building surfaces built over the last decade react to abating cloud cover. Sunshield louvers can be adjusted, glazing can be darkened, supplementary systems can be de-activated, vents can be opened. The composure of double-glazed, porous

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infrastructural skins incorporating water, air and electrical services, networks, and connections are producing vibrant living systems built to quickly adapt to changing ways of life and modes of production. 3.2 Light Constructions

Transformation of the high-rise glass box of this sort first came to light in what Terence Riley collectively referred to as the “pixel projects” in the “Light Constructions” exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 1995. [5] Thirty-two thick skin perforated containers were displayed, a curatorial strategy taken by Riley based on recent aesthetic and technical developments of glass and metals. Advances in double-skin facades, from glass and louver technologies to photovoltaic glazing surfaces paved the way for the development of energy-saving transparent thick skins [Fig. 6]. Less than a decade later, two major eco-exhibits have surfaced in the U.S.: first, “Ten Shades of Green,” curated by Peter Buchanan in 2000 and second, “Big & Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century” organized by David Gissen in 2003. 4.0 THICKENING ECO-SKINS IN THE U.S. 4.1 Light Skins

Less than a decade later, the transparent, perforated thick skin developed in Europe is giving shape to a number of high-rise glass boxes in the U.S.

Around the corner from the Seagram building is a new residential high-rise composed of perforated louvers extending one meter out on the south façade. The perforated surfaces disperse light across the façade and at night onto the street. Steel fins are suspended from the floor slabs in front of a double-glazed curtain wall. Vertical steel sections and recessed maintenance beams divide the construction into coffered fields [Fig. 6].

Fig. 6 Studio Loft Building, New York, 2002 Platt Byard Dovell Architects

The building is also an example of advances in integrating computer-controlled systems to building skin design. In this residential loft building, located near Times Square and the theatre district, over 300 lighting fixtures and 256 colors are combined in a choreographed illumination. This combination results in more than 500 possible, computer-controlled installations. The alternating moods in illumination are adapted to the pace of the street: the more sedate rhythm of the early morning hours is followed by the restrained daytime illumination, which in turn is contrasted by the rapid changes in color at night.

4.2 Ventilated Double-Facades The building envelope of the Genzyme Center,

office headquarters for a biotechnology company in Cambridge, employs high-performance curtainwall glazing with operable windows throughout its entire height [Fig 7]. Recently voted as an AIA Top Ten Green Project for 2004, more than 32% of the exterior envelope comprises a ventilated double-facade blocking solar gains in the summer and capturing solar gains in the winter. Back-up mechanical means for central heating and cooling are provided by steam from a nearby power plant.

The building's central atrium acts as a huge return air duct and light shaft. Fresh air moves into the atrium and up and out through exhaust fans near the skylight. Natural light from the fully glazed facade and from the atrium, brought in by solar-tracking mirrors above the skylight, is reflected deep into the building.

There are several other sustainable design features as well. The building uses 30% less water than a comparable office building by using waterless urinals, dual-flush toilets, automatic faucets, and low-flow fixtures. Stormwater supplements the evaporative cooling towers and irrigates the landscaped roof. Building materials were chosen for their low emissions, recycled content, and local manufacturing.

Fig. 7 Genzyme Center, Cambridge, Massachussetts, 2003 Behnisch + Behnisch Partners 4.3 Ventilated Skin

Set for completion in 2005, an 18-story, 80m high concrete office tower with a perforated metal skin will take advantage of passive cooling via local coastal breezes and an operable glass façade [Fig. 9]. The 60,000-square-meter building has a narrow dimension

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of 18 meters, capitalizing on concrete’s strength to meet the challenges of the local seismic environment and the unique footprint [Fig. 8].

Fig. 8 San Francisco Federal Office Building, 2005 Morphosis with SmithGroup

The post air-conditioned design is an aggressive attempt to hold down energy consumption [6]. The building will consume 50% less energy than a comparable conventionally built structure. The perforated screen will block direct midday sun from entering the tower. The building is designed to rely on natural air circulation, without air conditioning.

The use of concrete for high-rise office design is atypical for San Francisco, usually embracing steel. Concrete was chosen to facilitate passive ventilation and cooling by taking advantage of thermal mass. The concrete work will be exposed in the interior of the building, including concrete ceilings, columns, and walls. Working closely with Ove Arup and Lawrence Berkeley Labs on the natural-ventilation system, remote-controlled façade elements open in the evening to release warm air, bringing in cooler air to reduce the building temperature. The cooled-off concrete will help regulate temperatures throughout the day.

One of the structure’s most innovative components is the cast-in-place floor system, constructed with specially designed forms. John Nolte, project manager/construction engineer for owner General Services Administration (GSA), explains: “The underside of the concrete form is fluted, enhancing natural air flow. The upper side of the deck has cavities that comprise the under-floor distribution system, offering tenants flexibility and energy savings.” 4.4 Brick and Cell Skins

Smart skins are also surfacing in a range of neo-traditional multi-story buildings in the U.S. [Fig. 9]. Designated as the first green residential high-rise in the U.S., the Solaire is a 27-story brick and fly-ash concrete building with a range of resource-efficient features, most notably sun-absorbing, photovoltaic cells integrated in the west-facing façade that will generate five percent of the building's electric load.

Fig. 9 Neo-Traditional Meets Photovoltaics Residential High-Rise, New York, 2003 Cesar Pelli & Associates

Designed by Cesar Pelli & Associates, the building features 33kW of photovoltaic systems, energy-efficient lighting, fresh air and filtered water for every apartment, and storm and waste reclamation systems. The exterior masonry facade is interwoven with granite, brick, and photovoltaic panels. With funding support from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the panels are composed of blue squares made of recycled silicon computer chips.

Solaire is 35% more energy-efficient than required by code. The construction management team had to purchase as many materials as possible from within a 500-mile radius of the jobsite, employ recycle building materials, and use paints and finishes with low volatile organic compounds. The contractors even installed photovoltaic panels on their jobsite trailers to save energy during the construction process. About 50% of the total building material was recycled content. 5.0 NEW DIRECTIONS 5.1 Information Technologies and Ecology

In addition to the development of the perforated glass skin is a growing body of research that lies at the intersection of new information technologies and ecology. Two leading forces propelling these smart skins are 1) development of information software technologies in the building industry and 2) a global concern for the environment – specifically the growing shortage of natural resources and the rising costs on non-renewable energies [Fig. 10]. The intersection of these broader technological, environmental and cultural forces is producing new creative terrain between the arts and sciences in ways that are just beginning.

INFORMATION

Software Development in Design Industry

Computer-Aid Manufacturing

ENVIRONMENT

Shortage of Renewable Resources

Cost of Non-Renewable

Energies Fig. 10 Forces Driving Change

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An early example celebrating this development is “The Tower of Winds” project by Toyo Ito in 1990. [7] This project involves the renovation of a 21-meter existing tower in front of the Yokohama train station used to ventilate an underground shopping area. Acrylic mirror plates cover the existing tower, while an oval cylinder of 9 meters by 6 meters formed of perforated aluminum encloses a regular system of 12 neon rings, 30 floodlights, and 1280 mini-lamps.

Within this project, Ito explored the possibility of informal skin fluctuation as a means to deform physicality. Key to this is the detail of the perforations in the shell, which lend a nearly invisible grain to the object, a materialized pixelization allowing for the miraculous transformation from opacity to transparency by way of the most minimal component of tele-visual technology: dots and light. The intention, according to architect Ito, “was to extract the flow of air and noise from the general flow of things in the environment and to transform them into light signals - that is to convert the environment into visual information, and thus heightening one’s awareness of the environment around them.” 5.2 Skin Undulation Studies

Greg Lynn and Michael McInturff’s skin undulation studies for the Austrian Mineral Oil Company in Vienna use state-of-the-art simulation software to model various aspects of their visitor’s center [Fig. 11].

Fig. 11 Solar Modeling, 1996 mForm, Greg Lynn and Michael McInturff The shape and surface of the building is determined by using a computer model that includes data on the course of the sun and the movements of nearby traffic. The model was programmed literally for the façade to “contract” when in shadow and “expand” when illuminated by the sun. 5.3 Surface Modeling

Form-finding processes of environmental mapping and morphing also steers the Aegis Hyposurface study by Mark Goulthorpe in 1999 [Fig. 12].

Fig. 12 Aegis Hyposurface Study, 2000 Mark Goulthroupe

This kinetic art project is a faceted metallic surface driven by 1,000 actuators controlled by a powerful computational device. This permits the surface or skin to be dynamically reconfigured in real-time, activated by a series of electronic sensors according to sound, light and movement. This effect deploys an endless variable series of mathematical terrains.

5.4 Deformation through Registration

The idea of deformation through registration of various phenomena is the subject of a speculative office park southeast of Madrid [7]. The young Spanish firm Cero9 proposes small temporary work-spaces, encouraging contact with nature and observation of the physical environment. These slender constructions rise up like thin columns of smoke, seeking close relations between them and offering a territorial readability of the environment.

A thick and porous skin forms the envelope of the towers, with an intermediary space that thermically regulates and ventilates the interiors in summer while it captures and accumulates heat in winter. Through its hollow spaces air circulates as a result of different pressures with minimum energy consumption: the towers work like chimneys and give form to the wind. In this in-between area there is also a spiral stairway, electrical and plumbing services, which becomes gradually wider as it passes and differentiates the floors. The outer envelope is made of transparent cellular recylcled plastic whose color reflects the variable hue of the sky. The overlaying of these skins distorts our perception of the silhouette; it is blurred and sketchy, reflecting the ephemeral and transitory purpose of the project. 5.5 Reaction-based Dynamics and Solar Sensing

For Francois Roche, strategies of sensing and morphing gives rise to endless transformation [Fig. 13]. The [Un]Plug Building was a commission from the Research and development division of the French national electricity supplier, EDF, for a block of 352 offices and 22 conference rooms.

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Fig. 13 [Un]Plug Building, La Defense, Paris, 2003 Francois Roche

Each floor needed to have 16 offices per floor

and 23 floors totaling 9,839 square meters. The project operates as a kind of network along the lines of what the German automobile industry is doing with its concept cars that “react” on contact with renewable energies. Hairy with solar sensors and swollen with photovoltaic cells, this curtain wall façade, far from the inert glass skins of the past, is an all energy-producing membrane. Thus the architecture simultaneously consumes and generates energy into the urban network. 5.6 Smart Fabrics

Within the next five to ten years, building skins will be further pixilated and stretched. An innovative example is SmartWrap, a building liner recently developed with Dupont and Tyvek to keep heat and moisture out [Fig. 14].

Fig. 14 SmartWrap Product, Virginia, 2003 Kieran + Timberlake Architects Smart Wrap is a fabric-based, phase-change material that incorporates ultra-thin solar panels to collect energy and flat chemical batteries to store it [Fig. 9]. It is part of the mass customization trend in replacing mass production building material and assembly

systems. This technology is already used in skiing socks and some forms of drywall to help control temperature. Part of the smart package is organic light-emitting diodes [O.L.E.D.’s] that illuminate and change color. 6.0 CONCLUSION 6.1. Future Outlook

According to Bill McKibben in “The Age of Missing Information,” technology increasingly deprives us of the contact with nature that was once taken for granted. But consider the projects shown here. Motivated by the potential to reduce the amount of energy necessary to construct, operate and maintain the contemporary high-rise glass box, this new body of ecological design work is, in effect, heightening our contact with the environment around us [8].

Demand for flexible façade systems will continue to drive the perforation and ventilation of building skins, increasingly integrating passive solar design with high-performance computing. Building mechanics, traditionally associated with the “dark zones” of a building, will only continue to lodge themselves in the building skin or “light zone,” thereby expanding its scope and role in the overall design of buildings. And the façade, once essentially inert, mute and unintelligent, will only gain in importance as a dynamic ecological and information medium. REFERENCES [1] Vital Signs 2003: The Trends that are Shaping Our Future (New York: Worldwatch Institute, 2003), pp. 34-35. [2]U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Report 2000. [3] Christian Schittich (Ed.), Building Skins: Concepts, Layers, Materials (Basel: Birkhauser, 2001), pp. 30-33. [4] Klaus Daniels, The Technology of Ecological Building (Basel: Birkhauser, 1997), pp. 156-159. [5] Terrence Riley, Light Constructions (New York: Rizzolli Press, 1995). [6] Guy Battle and Christopher McCarthy, Sustainable Systems and the Built Environment (New York: Wiley Academy, 2001), p. 81. [7] Marie-Ange Brayer and Beatrice Simonot (ed.), Earth Buildings: Radical Experiments in Land Architecture (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2003). [8] Susannah Hagan, “Five Reasons to Adopt Environmental Design,” in Harvard Design Magazine, (Harvard Press, Spring/Summer 2003), p. 8.

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