It was indeed a successful conference!

Facade Conference 2013

Design Vs Development
November 29th, 2013 was Detmolds (Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe) turn to host professionals and students in the facade circle and engage them with constructive dialogues and debates. The conference was given the topic Design Vs. Development. Architects, engineers, producers, research institutes and universities were involved in these dialogues and debates. Ten speakers from the different areas of the faade design and construction circle took the stage and shared their experiences which they believe have contributed in the development of the sector. Knowledge hungry faces of students from four universities and 21 nations where part of the audience. In a very rare occasion for students to meet and discuss different issues with many celebrated professionals of the industry, seeing them satisfied with what they learned in the conference was one of the successfully addressed targets for the organizers. The conference started with a welcoming speech from the Dean of Detmold School for Architecture and Interior architecture, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Uta Pottgisser. After stating that quality of life and user comfort as the central challenge for designers and developers in building technology, she put forward the main discussion point for the day. Which was What and who is dominating driving force in the innovation and development of faade technology? and other related aspects. An ideal start for the conference, a speech about the relationship between architecture and technology and a historical approach on how these two aspects were and are mediated followed. The presentation was given by Mr.Colin Davies a former professor of Architectural Theory in London and editor of The Architects Journal. He showed projects (some that were not successful at their time) which have a finger print on the development of the relationship between architecture and technology giving the works of architects like Norman Foster and Richard Rogers as examples.

Figure 1. Renault Parts Distribution Centre by Norman Foster, 1982 Figure 2. Inmos Factory by Richard Rogers, 1982 (Source: www.rsh-p.com) (Source: www.essential-architecture.com)

The presentation that followed, by Dr. Wilfried Heusler of Schuco International KG, based this relationship between architecture and technologies and tried to answer the successful strategies for innovation in faade. He put the strategies for innovation in to two general categories; Market Pull and Technology push and indicated the successful innovation are often the ones which targeted the combination of these two strategies. Using interesting comparisons between other industries (Automobile, airplane, etc.) and the building industry he showed the social, economic and environmental factor the influenced and will to continue to influence the trend in faade technology. After this, two presentations from Mr.Mick Eekhout of Octatube and Ing. Nico Pulskens showed some of the works by their respective companys and the factors behind the success of these projects.

Figure 3. Glass Cube, Headquarters Banco Santander Madrid

The picture above and more projects with a very large area of glazing were realized by Octatube Company. It was fascinating to see the solution they applied and the steps the company took to bring their new cable stayed glass system and other solutions in to the market. As renovation of existing buildings being one of the big areas where the building industry should address to reduce the energy consumption by built environments, it was interesting to see the refurbishment process of the Bauhaus in Germany. MHB b.v. was the company that did the refurbishment. Mr Pulskens showed the steps in the engineering development of their profiles system they used for this project in order to meet the requirements from the world heritage and environmental perspective.

Figure 4. Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany

A very familiar face for our University was the next speaker of the day, Dr. Holger Strauss from Emmer Pfenninger Partner AG. In his presentation he showed innovation potentials in faade building as material based and geometry based. He mentioned an example of a project asa da Musica in Porto, Portugal. In this project the engineers developed a structural innovation by forming a corrugated glass to be in content with the architects wish of having a large sized glazing.

Figure 5. Casa da Msica in Porto (Source: www.learningportugueseinportugal.com/

In addition he should the different technologies and innovations that will help to realize more complicated freeform designs. He also showed the roll of 3D printing technology in complicated buildings in the near future. The morning session was completed with a very great speech by Mr. Thomas Auer from Transolar. After wowing the audience with their artificial cloud in a building, he explained the complete phase they take to reach to successful climate engineering in a project they were involved in. He showed the steps they took in building an office building in Winnipeg, Canada, Manitoba Hydro, which has an energy use 60% less than the national energy code. It was interesting to see how early in the design stage their office was involved so early that they influenced the shape and orientation of the building in order to optimize the comfort level of the building. He also made a very big statement saying the evaluation of energy demand should not only be based on floor areas but also on people. Giving this as one of the reasons why the energy demands in buildings is not decreasing as we wish them to be.

Figure 6. Manitoba Hydro in Winnipeg, Canada (Source: www.sabmagazine.com)

After the lunch break Dr. Tillmann Klein displayed a very elaborate process in curtain wall design and the relationship between different stakeholders in the industry. A presentation by Mrs. Lena Kleinheinz showed that what visually looks remarkable can also be sustainable and efficient in the use of materials by taking the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Shooting Arenas as an example.

Figure 7.London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Shooting Arenas

The conference then ended with two great presentations from our own Prof. Mary-Anne Kyriakou about Light and space and Mr. Robert Stephens of Inhabit Groups focusing the development of faade in the history of architecture. The Coffee and lunch breaks were also full of discussions. It was interesting to see students running towards speakers for questions and different professionals from different areas engaged in dialogues. After all this was the main goal of the conference. Looking forward for the next conference!