Facade design has always to strike the right balance between the aesthetics and technical detailing—no easy feat. Indeed, architects and designers are expected to satisfy the demands of the client while also meeting performance standards and local building regulations. In a first, Facades+, AN’s national conference series, will go online on June 25 to highlight exemplary case studies, innovative materials, and strategies for overcoming facade challenges. The digital conference will be split between a morning symposium and an afternoon of workshops, both of which can be registered for separately.
The morning kicks off with a half-hour keynote address, which will be followed by two separate hour-long panels. Boston-based firm Payette received not one, but two COTE awards in 2019 for their Amherst Science Center and Northeastern University’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex. The first panel will highlight this achievement with a presentation and discussion led by director of building science and principal Andrea Love, senior associate Jeff Abramson, and Integral Group’s managing principal Bungane Mehlomakulu. The collaborators will focus on the Amherst Science Center, and, in particular, the input of facade design on energy modeling.
Studio NYL’s founding principal Chris O’Hara and facade design director Will Babbington, will join Sasaki director of technical resources and associate principal Bradford J. Prestbo on the second panel to dive into the topic of thermal bridging. The team will define problems arising from thermal bridges and how to solve a particular detail through review and analysis. The audience will be able to submit questions to the trio during the concluding 20 minutes of the panel.
The afternoon of the Facades+ conference is tied to AN’s CE Strong education series and will consist of four hour-long crash courses led by manufacturers.
