Contemporary

In filt3rs we talk about “A unique wrapping”; P. Garrido and J. Prous in “Deep Skin” refer to “Burqas and veilings”. This project by IDOM also adopts the tendency to cover the building with a continuous skin that is more or less abstract and placed over a more functional enclosure.

On this occasion, the interior is glass and the outer skin a perforated metal sheet that reproduces the image of a green landscape.

The MACBA, the Film Library and now the new Massana school building: all of these are large public buildings inserted into a dense, small-grain urban structure. In the case of the Massana school, the strategy was to break down the volume into two bodies that do not even seem to be part of the same building, justifying the great hall.

This façade is not watertight and it is not airtight. Depending on the density and size of the stones, it protects against direct sun radiation but without managing the visual relationship with the outside. It considerably blocks the entry of light, gives privacy and protects from intrusion. If it is true that, together with a drained cavity, it would constitute a watertight envelope, but it seems that this is not the case here.

This is a very interesting façade concept.

The façade brings together all the adjectives that architects use to describe enclosures that are “trending”: integrated, active, flexible and perfectible.

It is a rainscreen façade in which the cladding plates, together with the substructure, can incorporate a range of functions including active energy production. The cladding plates, which are all the same size, are interchangeable, making the enclosure flexible. The support and anchoring system allow new cladding plates to be added with improved functions.

From Ircam to Saint Giles, Piano offers a range of proposals for closing the façade with prefabricated panels finished with ceramic pieces. It is interesting to see how these initial concerns and approaches accompany him throughout his career: prefabricating the use of small-format ceramic pieces.

Pich Aguilera studio is one of the non-conservative teams that always attract our attention, due to the overall formalization of their buildings and the technological strategies they adopt.

This is a very stimulating sun protection mechanism.

From the front view, the design seems to be a simple formalism. However, its interest lies in the fact that it grows inwards, like vertical slats. Including these slats in a partially perforated plane with an abstract composition allows the architects to escape from a conventional image.

In this northwest orientation, the system perfectly obstructs solar radiation during the last hours of summer days, without limiting the street view or the entry of light.

The building for a student’s residence at the South Diagonal Universities Campus uses two different façade systems: the first, ETICS, solves water tightness thanks to the impermeability of the rendering; the second, rain screen, uses an open-joint outer sheet and a drainage cavity for this same purpose.

It is not possible to talk about facades without mentioning a very unique façade for the moment when it was built, and that even today continues being a reference.

The first point that draws our attention is the constructive system of own design, lightweight, based on a system of mullions (similar to a curtain wall). Despite the verticality imposed by the system, clearly visible from the outside elevation, the interior gives a fairly conventional image of blind parapet and horizontal windows. 

This building, and its façade, could easily go unnoticed. It is appropriate, but not boastful.

However, we wanted to draw attention to a very specific, educational aspect. Even though the two façade systems that are used are formed by two sheets with a cavity in the middle, their behaviour is very different. 
The outer layer made of flat plates with open vertical joints allows air and water to enter and exit the cavity through the joints. This is a ventilated and drained façade.