Architectural envelopes are building surfaces that perform climatically and / or structurally, while using technology, materials, and their assembly to expressive ends. When expressing a society’s relationship to place, to climate, to art, to technology, or to tradition, they may become culturally meaningful. Through lectures and discussions, this topical course examines questions that emerge from various applications of technology and its exposure in architectural envelopes. It identifies architectural principles in case studies built around the world, from the 19th to the 21st century, organized under these topics: tectonics, cladding and masking, integration, delamination, situated technology, passive / mechanical climatic mediation, green technologies, material transformations, cultivated materials, digital fabrication. All topics link historic cases to contemporary environmental and cultural considerations. In so doing, the course develops students’ critical thinking about architectural creation, and their understanding of the reciprocities between technology, climate, and expression, which is essential for using architecture’s agency for the creating more sustainable and meaningful environments.
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