Façade Fabrication: Materialization of the Industrial Sublime (Jacky, Andrew, Alexandra)

MATERILIZATION OF THE INDUSTRIAL SUBLIME

Alexandra Wang Andrew Yoon Jacky Jia

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The industrial sublime refers to the awe-inspiring, often overwhelming grandeur evoked by industrial landscapes, structures, or processes constructed with the scale of humans and the destruction of nature.

In 19th and 20th century Pittsburgh, the industrial sublime shows the city’s vast factories, urban sprawls, and technological advancements.

We are exploring the theme of scale, complexity, and juxtaposition of material and texture inspired by the concept of industrial sublime.

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Initial Concepts The Industrial Sublime

Initial Ideas & Sketches

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Initial Facade Exploration in Rhino Draft 1

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Initial Facade Exploration in Rhino Draft 2

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We first used Grasshopper to test out several perforation possibilities through image references, such as some simple circular and rectangular perforation patterns.

Looking further into the industrial elements of metal productions and referencing photography on the concept of the industrial sublime, we decided to explore a different way of generating patterns for the perforated panels.

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Image Referencing Perforation

Perforation Pattern Explorations

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New Facade Iteration

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5'-0" 7'-0"

7'-0" 5'-0"

The position of the openings is based on a human’s eye level in various positions. On the western facade, where the stairs are located, the people would be moving. As a result, the openings are shaped so that they offer an optimal view of the outside for people who are standing.

Western Facade Elevation

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4'-0"

7'-0"

3'-0"

5'-0" 7'-0"

At the same time, we understood the ground level as an important level to keep open to create a visual connection for people walking on the sidewalk. On the southern facade, where much of the office work is taking place, we found it appropriate to create more openings for people seated at their desks. At the same time, it maintains similar openings to the western facade near the corner.

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Southern Facade Elevation

45.

0° .0 15

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75

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75

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45.

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PANE GROUP 1

PANE GROUP 2

The panel types use rotation as a way to visually direct pedestrians around the corner to where the entrance is located. At the same time, the folded nature of each panel allows for the combination of aluminum and corten steel on either side. The sizing of the panels aligns with the centerline of the window mullions, simplifying the attachment process.

Panel Types in Plan

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a a b

a a

b

a a

b

a a

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a a

b

b

b

a a

b

a a a a

b

a a a a

b

The arrangement of the panels follows a specific pattern that gradually rotates the panel from 75 degrees to 15 degrees. On the southern facade, the panels are arranged in an aabaa pattern, with a being half of b. On the western facade, the panels are arranged in a aab pattern.

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a a a a

b

a a a a

b

a a

Panel Rhythm in Plan

New Facade Iteration Draft 2

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Referencing industrial elements of metal production, we used spark imagery as the inspiration for the perforation pattern. The aim is to use the images as a reference to create perforations, bringing sunlight into the space. Using Grasshopper image sampler, we explored several different pattern generations for the perforated panels. In each of these explorations, the images are mapped onto the facade faces, which are split into panels. These panels’ perforations together would represent the reference image.

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Grasshopper Script for Perforation Pattern

Among all three experimented imagery, numbers 1 and 3 are the most interesting, panels have different sizes of perforations and the overall view references back to the sparks in industrial photography. The image sampling in Grasshopper is a sampling from the brightness and darkness of the image, therefore, the references with bigger contrasts would show the image better in the perforations.

Perforation Testing with Various Images

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New Facade Iteration Draft 3

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West Facade

South Facade Facade

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Perforation Grasshopper Script

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Updating from the previous iteration, the perforation still uses the spark imagery, but the pattern is much denser. In combination with the polished aluminum material and the desire to create a spark effect, we decided to perforate only one side of the pleating surfaces, while the other side remains solid polished aluminum panels.

Perforation Rationalization

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The alternating pattern between the perforated panel and the solid panel would allow light to reflect and shine into the interior space through the perforations, generating a glistening effect on the interior space. This denser perforation responds to the Pittsburgh climate context, where people often desire more transparency and views of the outdoors. This denser pattern not only creates more openings to the surface for exterior views, it also creates a vile-like effect that maps out the spark imagery more clearly.

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Perforation Rationalization

The penalization of the facade was reimagined based on the height of the floors. Instead of having panels that run up the whole height of the building, it makes more sense from a fabrication and construction standpoint to have each panel be smaller. As such, we used the height of the floor to divide up the panels.

Repanelization

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To accommodate the change in penalization, we slightly modified the perforation pattern to ensure no circles are cut at the edges of each panel.

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Western Facade Elevation

Furthermore, we added a 1” return on either side of each opening to ensure structural integrity when folding.

South Facade Elevation

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Exterior Render

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Interior Render

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FACADE DETAIL 1-1/2" = 1'

1

2

3

4

5

6

ATTACHMENT CALLOUT 4" = 1' a b

LEGEND

g

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3 3/8" BRUSHED STAINLESS STEEL CONNECTOR PLATE

f

4 CURTAIN WALL SYSTEM a 4" ALUMINIUM MULLION

1 ROOF PARAPET 2 ROOF SLAB

b 1/8" COLD ROLLED STEEL STUD c 1" FABREEKA-TIM RF THERMAL BREAK d RUBBER GASKET e DOUBLE PANE WINDOW f ALUMINIUM MULLION COVER g U-SECTION STEEL CLIP h INSULATION SHIM i

STEEL BOLT

5 FLOOR SLAB 6 1/8" FOLDED POLISHED ALUMINIUM PANEL

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1

6 2

3

ATTACHMENT CALLOUT 4" = 1' a b g

c

h

d

i

e

4

f

6

5

ATTACHMENT CALLOUT 4" = 1' a b

LEGEND

g

c

h

d

i

e

3 3/8" BRUSHED STAINLESS STEEL CONNECTOR PLATE

f

4 CURTAIN WALL SYSTEM a 4" ALUMINIUM MULLION

1 ROOF PARAPET 2 ROOF SLAB

b 1/8" COLD ROLLED STEEL STUD c 1" FABREEKA-TIM RF THERMAL BREAK d RUBBER GASKET e DOUBLE PANE WINDOW f ALUMINIUM MULLION COVER g U-SECTION STEEL CLIP h INSULATION SHIM i

STEEL BOLT

5 FLOOR SLAB 6 1/8" FOLDED POLISHED ALUMINIUM PANEL

Connector Detail in Relation to Mullion

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