Many practitioners and theorists of modern architecture favored large open plans, looming glass windows, and through both of these means, an unencumbered connection to nature. To do so, many iconic modernist buildings would use cantilevered roofs extending over glass curtainwalls, including Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House and Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #22. In the years since this trend was popularized, however, a seemingly niche yet cumbersome problem would present itself: the problem of continuous wood ceilings.
Wooden ceilings are an obvious choice for aesthetic reasons: they provide warmth and texture to most environments, nurturing a rustic, homely atmosphere that can bring comfort to any space. Especially in designs that aim to reconnect with nature, a wooden ceiling combined with glass windows can feel incredibly natural, extending the beauty of the outdoors into an interior, protected space. Yet in designs with cantilevered roofs, the wooden roofing for the interior needs to be suitable for the exterior as well if it extends past the building’s walls and into the underside of the hanging canopies.
As a solution to this issue, the wood covering company Prodema has designed a new range of wood panels called Soffit Panels. Manufactured to be installed on exterior surfaces, particularly on balconies, soffits, or lower canopies, they can also be applied without problems indoors. Facilitating a new trend of continuous wood ceilings, these simultaneously durable and aesthetic panels allow architects to design for greater continuity in indoor and outdoor spaces, blurring the boundary between nature and shelter even further.
The benefits of the Soffit range are many, including easy installation, no maintenance, and, of course, heightened visual appeal. Made from real wood, the Prodema Soffit is not only naturally textured and toned, but it is more durable than traditional soffits, which typically soften and peel if not maintained properly.
Below, we consider three case studies that use the Prodema Soffit panel in beautiful and unique ways.
This single-family residential design could be taken out of a modernist design handbook, with its floor-to-ceiling glass windows, cantilevered flat roof, open-plan interior, and remote location; in fact, it was directly inspired by Philip Johnson’s famous Glass House. The house uses Prodema’s Grey Eucalyptus Soffit panels on the underside of its roof, which cantilevers past the glass windows and hangs over the sides of the walls. The wood extends uninterrupted throughout both interior ceiling and exterior canopy, reaching into the surrounding forest and connecting the home to its immediate natural environment.
This multi-family housing structure continues the typology of floor-to-ceiling glass windows and cantilevered roofs, yet it does so across multiple floors accommodating multiple groups of residents. Again, the Soffit panels—this time in the White American Oak finish—continue across both interior and exterior, on the underside of the above balconies. The highly textured finish of the panels complements the building’s overall simplicity in design.
This cultural building draws design inspiration from the Bauhaus Collection in Alvaro Siza’s Chinese Museum of Design. Creating an immense, geometric stone mass in light, warm colors, the center uses Prodema’s Grey Ayous wood soffit to clad the ceiling of an outdoor covered public square.
People have fundamental needs that must be met in order to survive, which include: oxygen, water, food, sleep, and shelter. They also have secondary requirements, one of which is daylight. When thinking about how buildings can keep people healthy, it is important to remember that daylighting is essential to wellness, in fact, human circadian rhythms are dependent on it.
Daylight Harvesting
What is Daylighting? Daylighting is the art of placing apertures into buildings to control either direct or indirect sunlight that penetrates the space to provide interior lighting. People have been harvesting daylight for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians were using windows covered by reed mats in 1500BC. While the principle remains, the technology has developed: first by using shutters, then glass, and now, translucent panels, sun pipes, and smart glass.
In architecture, daylighting has always been one of the most important aspects of design, with buildings being planned around movements of the sun to capture the most lighting. This meant that houses in the Northern hemisphere had fewer windows facing North than facing South. The opposite was true in the Southern hemisphere. Then, with the advent of electrical lighting, daylighting became less important and purely aesthetic or utilitarian. But with artificial lighting people miss out on the proper wavelengths of light required to maintain proper circadian rhythms and bodily functions. Concerns about the carbon footprint of buildings have also made it important to reduce electricity used by artificial lighting and minimize HVAC usage related to solar heat gain and thermal performance. Now, architects and designers are placing more and more emphasis back on daylighting and the benefits it provides.
In science, computers can now run daylight modeling exercises as well as generate lux levels, daylight autonomy reports, levels of radiance illuminance, and glare pattern analyses. This technology can find that ‘sweet spot’ between lighting, visual comfort, climate, warmth, and health benefits.
In art, diffuse daylighting is managed to maximize visual comfort and acuity to improve productivity and human performance. It can be used to highlight architectural features and to bring accents to different spaces. By allowing full-spectrum color rendering, daylighting can provide an ideal space for showcasing artwork.
Transparency vs. Translucency
In order for a design to be successful, it is vital to control the amount of light entering a building through windows. Whether it be preventing excessive solar gain or mitigating glare and hotspots, sunlight has always been constrained using sunshades, brise-soleil, curtains, blinds, louvers, or shutters. Transparent mediums have no built-in filter, which is why translucent solutions that diffuse daylighting are popular. Diffused solutions protect against issues such as light pollution, unlike transparent ones, while still allowing for adequate natural lighting. The broad diffusion of light over a large area also means that more usable light penetrates deeper into the interior space, allowing excellent visual clarity. Furthermore, it has been shown that diffused daylight offers other benefits over transparent options. This goes from the calming and attractive ambiance to enhanced concentration and better responsivity compared to traditional glazing.
Translucent Sandwich Panels
There are three traditional methods for allowing daylight into buildings: Glass, Polycarbonate, and Fiber-Reinforced Composite Panels. Each has distinct advantages and disadvantages.
Glass is the oldest way of allowing natural light into a building. Since Roman times, it has been used to allow light into spaces while blocking out dust, dirt, and wind. Its transparency offers unparalleled visual freedom with inherent biophilic advantages of linking people to nature. However, glass also has several disadvantages. It is heavy, inflexible, and fragile, which causes installation challenges. It also provides relatively poor thermal properties and needs a secondary solution to control solar gain and glare.
Polycarbonate sheeting offers a stronger, more durable, and lighter alternative to glass and helps block harmful UV rays, but it also has several disadvantages. It can be easily scratched and become discolored and brittle over time. In addition to poor impact resistance and structural load capacity, it has very low levels of thermal efficiency and is sensitive to heat.
FRP (Fiber-Reinforced Composite Panels)panels offer distinct advantages over both glass and polycarbonate in terms of thermal insulation (which can be the same as an insulated cavity wall). In addition, translucent sandwich panels offer the highest protection and resistance to wind-borne debris, impact, fire, abrasion, and point loads. Although these panels may sometimes be more expensive than other options, with FRP’s high-performance benefits including low maintenance, energy savings, and durability, the initial cost is offset by a greater life-cycle value. Lastly, while the translucency will not provide a view to the outside, it is perfect if you want line-of-sight protection.
Sometimes, incorporating more than one product offers the best solution. For example, you can achieve the performance benefits of an FRP panel, while incorporating vision glazing for a connection with nature.
Why Sandwich Panels?
The unique composition of Kalwall FRP Sandwich Panels offers superior benefits compared to alternative options in every aspect; from safety and security to weatherability and energy efficiency.
The aluminum, or thermally-broken grid core with interlocking I-beams, gives sandwich panels incredible strength in a light-weight system, making them substantially lighter when compared to the glass equivalent.
Sandwich panels are structurally sound, with an outstanding load capacity that makes them man-safe.
The strength of the panels themselves facilitates larger spans with fewer supporting substrates. It is possible to obtain spans up to 80 feet (25 meters) – unheard of with polycarbonate or glazing.
An important aspect of using FRP is it’s innate shatter/impact-proof nature, making it suitable for use in areas of high security or those at risk from blasts. It is increasingly used in airport design and in areas deemed as high-risk, high-value, or target-rich. These include man-made risks such as terrorism or explosion venting to extreme weather events such as hurricanes.
When filled with insulation or an aerogel, sandwich panels offer unparalleled thermal performance. The most insulating sandwich panel can achieve a ‘U’ value of .05 (0.28W/m²K), the equivalent of a cavity-filled solid wall.
In addition to superior thermal performance, a translucent sandwich panel offers the energy efficiency of optimal daylighting design. Utilizing diffusion, the sandwich panel can transmit up to 20% visible light that is scattered deeper into spaces without glare or hotspots, reducing the need for artificial lighting and controlling solar heat gain.
FRP sandwich panels are increasingly being specified as the material of choice as the demand for sustainable, high-performance products increases. The self-supporting nature of sandwich panels, coupled with their lightweightedness, reduces the need for supporting structures. Not only is this aesthetically more pleasing, but it curtails a project’s carbon footprint (as well as saves time and money). The exterior face of the sandwich panel is color stable and includes a permanent glass erosion barrier with a UV-resistant, self-cleaning surface. This means that normal rainfall helps to keep the surface free of dust and dirt while at the same time retaining its original color during the weathering process. Furthermore, the inclusion of an erosion-prevention barrier protects the interior from weather exposure and the risk of fiber-bloom, cracking, and crazing.
Maximizing daylight is an integral part of sustainable design. Translucent panels have the ability to diffuse large amounts of usable light with a relatively low level of light transmission. Less radiant energy is transmitted and this, coupled with diffusion, mitigates hot spots that are common to other light-transmitting sources. It also throws evenly-distributed light further into an interior space, reducing the need for artificial lighting and the loads on mechanical systems.
Flush-fit, clean lines, pure linear continuity. The choice of a Filomuro door may be dictated by various furnishing needs: keeping the minimal aesthetics of a space unaltered; making passageways to secondary rooms, like pantries or storage closets, less visible; allowing special decorative motifs on large surfaces to continue on door element to complete the interior decor.
Compact and solid ,both in appearance and substance, LINE is a versatile partition wall with vertical modules that fit well in any type of setting and can be easily integrated in all the other systems proposed by Ge Giussani. Extremely flexible system, both in terms of size and materials. Modules completely solid, mixed modules with solid and glass panes in various sizes. LINE meets the various needs of users as regards as organization and functional changes in the working environments. It is characterized by an inner metal structure and a double paneling with vertical modularity .Essential elements of the system: modules with internal bearing structure ,with vertical uprights and horizontal stringers on which the double chipboard panels 18 mm thick , the aluminum profiles and the double glazing are fixed, one on each side.
SO House in Porto de Mós, Portugal by Phyd Arquitectura; Photo: emontenegro / architectural photography
In case you haven’t checked out Archinect’s Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.
Today’s top images (in no particular order) are from the board Doors & Gates.
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The K EVO partition wall is a single glass system with single hollow profiles with variable adjustments, able to absorb dimensional wall tolerance. K EVO glass walls are stratified and can be transparent, etched, serigraphed or decorated with adhesive film. Stratified glass guarantees a better sound isolation. All spaces visually connect each other through the glasses that define the surrounding spaces. The K evo partition wall is a single glazed system with single hollow profiles and variable adjustment to absorb the dimensional wall tolerance.
Rainscreen wall panels, rear-ventilated facades, metal wall, architectural panels
Characteristics
Can be combined with other panel types, concealed fasteners, ten profiles, cladding
Presentation / packaging
Horizontal, vertical
Sizes
Length: 5′ (1.52m) to 30′ (9.14m) Standard | Depth: 1-1⁄2” (38mm) | Cover width: 12” (305mm)
2 Supplementary Files
More about this product
Morin Corporation is specialized in roll forming of Architectural heavier gauge single skin metal wall and metal roof systems. They manufacture over 100 profiles of architectural panels for any size of project. Alongside panels, Morin Corporation offers a complete suite of metal cladding finishes which include perforations, corners, coordinated louvers and fasteners, and custom extrusions.
The Morin Metal Wall architectural panel selection consists of three series which use the same joining techniques and can be used in a mix and match fashion. The Matrix Series® is a, concealed fastener rain screen, metalwall panel system with ten profiles.
Profiles
Matrix 1.0
Matrix 2.0
Matrix 3.0
Matrix 4.0
Matrix 6.0
Matrix 7.0
Matrix 8.0
Matrix 9.0
Matrix 10.0
Matrix 11.0
Material Options
Galvalume/Zincalume Painted Steel
20 GA (.91mm) 22 GA
Aluminum
.050 GA(1.27mm) and .040 Ga (1mm)
Stainless Steel
22 G (.76mm) / 24 GA (.60mm)
Zinc
20 GA (1mm) / 22 GA (.91mm)
Natural Copper
20 oz. / 16 oz.
Morin Corporation can provide on-site installation guidance and technical staff to help with drawings, design, cost-saving ideas and technical knowledge.
A collection in stone-effect porcelain stoneware, specially designed for the outdoors! An expressive colour palette that brings the best out of a collection of tiles renowned for their practicality, aesthetics and strength.
Text description provided by the architects. Los Angeles — The new Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC) sets a precedent for civic-minded transit hubs in the United States. HOK designed ARTIC, which represents the next generation of public transportation in Southern California, as an innovative new transit station that serves as a destination in itself.
“ARTIC is a community-focused building that will change how people think about public transportation,” said Ernest Cirangle, FAIA, LEED AP, design principal for HOK’s Los Angeles office. “This iconic facility is a symbol of a new era of public transit and was only made possible because of city leaders’ unwavering commitment to a contemporary and bold design.”
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First Floor Plan with context
Projected to serve the transportation needs of more than three million people annually in the coming years, the 67,000-sq.-ft. transit hub links commuter and regional rail service and intercity bus systems including Amtrak, Metrolink, OCTA bus service, Anaheim Resort Transportation (ART), Megabus.com and Greyhound. ARTIC’s flexible design ensures that it can serve as a southern terminus for California’s future high-speed rail system. In addition to accommodating passenger arrivals, departures and transfers, ARTIC integrates amenities such as transit-oriented retail, Wi-Fi and charging stations, parking, bike racks, lockers, community space and specialty dining.
HOK won an international competition to design the project. Officials challenged the team to create an icon that would welcome a new age of public transportation into the region. The station also was conceived as a catalyst for transforming Anaheim’s core into a pedestrian-friendly zone that promotes connectivity and a vibrant, mixed-use environment. Known as the “Platinum Triangle,” the area around the station includes destinations such as Angel Stadium, the Honda Center, the HOK-designed Anaheim Convention Center and nearby Disneyland.
“The master plan establishes a clear pedestrian pathway flanked by future, mixed-use development with ARTIC as the primary destination,” said Cirangle. “The extroverted building has a significant but welcoming presence and will help spur transit-oriented development.”
Drawing inspiration from classic grand transit halls including Grand Central Terminal in New York, along with the structural elegance of local airship hangars, the team developed a 21st-century design concept for the forward-looking transit facility. The design achieves ARTIC’s signature parabolic form by employing a diagrid structural system of diamond-shaped steel arches infilled with translucent ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) pillows. At the north and south ends, freestanding curtain walls bring in daylight and open the building to views. The long-span, grid shell structure creates a grand, light-filled atrium space that accommodates open circulation.
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North Elevation
The design team used building information modeling (BIM) to develop ARTIC’s complex form, geometry and functions, to navigate the complexities of the building systems, and to study the building’s tolerances and environmental performance. “By using BIM, we were able to optimize and coordinate the precise geometry of the vaulted diagrid shell, ETFE facade technology, metal panel rain screen systems and glass,” said Albert Kaneshiro, AIA, LEED AP, HOK’s project manager. “BIM allowed us to match ETFE connections with the geometry of the steel in a structure that is constantly expanding and contracting.”
Based on the city’s goals for sustainability, the team designed ARTIC for U.S. Green Building Council LEED Platinum certification. The vault-shaped structure acts in concert with advanced mechanical systems to optimize energy efficiency. Inflated ETFE cushions cast a soft, translucent light throughout the great hall, while the additional frit pattern on the outer layer reduces solar heat gain. Convection currents naturally ventilate the building as heat rises from the lower south end up to the north side and out through operable louvers. The radiant heating and cooling floor system and optimized HVAC system will help reduce ARTIC’s energy consumption by 50 percent.
LEDs mounted on the diagrid structure illuminate the ETFE pillows in gradations of shifting colors, providing a striking presence on the night skyline. As darkness falls, ARTIC becomes lit from within and acts as a beacon from the freeways and local streets.
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West Elevation
HOK provided architecture, interior design, master planning and urban design services. Parsons Brinckerhoff was the project manager and served as the rail and civil engineer. Other consultants include Thornton Tomasetti as structural engineer, Buro Happold as MEP and enclosure engineering, SWA as landscape designer, and Clark Construction as general contractor.
HOK’s Aviation + Transportation group designs high-performance passenger terminals, stations, intermodal facilities, automatic people mover systems, light rail systems and other transportation amenities. Recent A+T projects include the Hamad International Airport Passenger Terminal Complex in Doha, Qatar; the Salt Lake City International Airport Terminal Redevelopment Program; the Union Station Master Plan in Washington, DC; Indianapolis International Airport Colonel H. Weir Cook Terminal; and the PHX Sky Train® at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Airports, schools, cafeterias, locker rooms, museums, restaurants, hospitals, office buildings, stadiums & convention centers, shopping malls and other commercial, industrial and institutional applications
Characteristics
Customer assistance throughout the entire process, high aesthetic appeal, fast delivery times, durability and low maintenance, extensive color, pattern and aggregate options
Certification
CA 10350, LEED
More about this product
Terrazzo & Marble has supplied Terroxy Resin Systems to numerous airport projects around the world, providing highly durable, low-maintenance, aesthetically pleasing and sustainableepoxy flooring. The following characteristics make Terroxy Resin Systems by Terrazzo & Marble the ideal option for airport flooring:
Durability:Terrazzo’s impeccable durability and strength are ideal for the numerous high traffic areas within airports including security areas, terminals, baggage claims, car rental facilities, restaurants, and retail stores. The seamless feature of terrazzofloors allows for travelers to commute from one side of the airport to the other at ease without the impediment of grout joints for their wheeled luggage, immensely reducing indoor noise. While the initial cost for other flooring systems might appear to be more affordable, they require more maintenance than terrazzo flooring. Other flooring systems such as carpet or vinyl tiles have to be replaced frequently, especially in high traffic areas, while terrazzo stands the test of time and typically lasts the lifetime of the building.
Low Maintenance: Since airports are continuously operating during the day, the easier the maintenance, the better. Seamless terrazzo flooring allows for easy cleaning and sanitizing, and day-to-day maintenance only requires using a mop and a bucket of warm water. Terrazzo & Marble’sTerroxy Resin Systems Epoxy Matrix also helps to prevent the growth of bacteria and fungus.
Aesthetics:Terrazzo offers unlimited possibilities by allowing any imaginable combinations of colors, patterns, logos, and pictures. This allows designers and architects to create distinctive designs that create memorable branding for airports along with wayfinding graphics for easier commuting. Terroxy Resin Systems‘ special formulation does not allow for colors to fade or wear thin.
Sustainability:Terrazzo has long been a recycled product and was created centuries ago by Venetian workers utilizing waste chips from slab marble processing. The following aspects make Terroxy Resin Systems a sustainable choice for airport flooring:
Use of recycled content for aggregates
Use of local/regional materials
High durability, lasting the lifetime of the building
Archy Naija 