For her project Matter + Energy: Composite Façades, Associate Professor of Architecture Franca Trubiano led a seminar dedicated to the development of research protocols for the design of architectural facades, based on formalizing environmental exchanges between matter and energy. The seminar engaged three separate questions associated with architectural research:
In what way can architectural research contribute to the creation of new knowledge, and to what end should this research be aimed?
In what way is the facade an important site for architectural research during upcoming decades?
What are the pressing questions that architects can address when thinking about research in materials and energy?
In partnership with seminar sponsor EYP Architects + Engineers of New York City, Trubiano’s graduate students worked alongside EYP’s research team to promote architectural innovation in the field of environmental technology, animating and channeling the question of composite facades in the context of new materials and renewable energy. Students undertook industry visits to several companies, including New Hudson Facades and M. Cohen and Sons, touring their facilities to learn more about the process of designing and constructing custom facades.
As part of the seminar, students designed and prototyped solutions that respond to a confirmed ecological need: the design of effective and efficient skin technologies that can mediate the sun’s rays, transfer air, and mitigate the harmful effects of water. In collaboration with B Fabrication of Philadelphia, PennDesign graduate Josh Jordan facilitated student access to digital fabrication technologies of use in the production of project prototypes. Ultimately, the seminar’s research, prototypes, composite workshop, and broadcasting were dedicated to the development of a body of knowledge aligned with the design and construction of ecologically-appropriate building envelopes.
In addition to the prototypes produced by the seminar’s graduate students, “Matter + Energy” resulted in a publication that synthesizes the initiative’s collaborative people, process, and projects.
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