Category Archives: Building Systems

Ventilation Chimney

The original, 1910 church was naturally ventilated as a matter of course (air conditioning was still a novelty at the time). Expansive volumes and high ceilings helped keep air moving freely. With a full roster of classrooms, offices, restrooms, and modern services to account for, our project couldn’t enjoy th [...]

Read more about Children’s Day School.

Artificial Light

The ideal interior has balanced natural light. Existing buildings can have more or less of it, but careful office space planning can optimize it, bringing any available natural light deeper into an office interior. At the same time, it also is possible to have too much light. New glass office towers often have the blinds permanently drawn to temper glare on computer monitors within.

Assisted Readymades

Marcel Duchamp selected ordinary mass-produced objects and elevated them to works of art. These manufactured (as opposed to handmade) goods were often repositioned or joined (“assisted”) by the artist to change their meaning and interpretation.

Acoustics

It’s official: the human brain does not multitask well. With distractions, productivity and accuracy plummet drastically. While part of your attention is on writing, another part is following the conversation at the next desk. Recent studies even indicate more sick days and lower job satisfaction in open offices.

Radiant Heating

The home’s design, with a perimeter that can be up to 75 percent open, presented an especially unique condition in terms of heating. Radiant heating integrated into the concrete topping slab offered the clear advantage of heating the occupants and the floor rather than the air within the space. Within the flo [...]

Prefab Spa

To more efficiently sequence the construction schedule, the Alaskan yellow cedar spa enclosure was pre-manufactured off-site, and delivered in pieces for installation. Using this process allowed the contractors to start fabrication of the spa enclosure while simultaneously pouring and curing the concrete for the pool, spa, a [...]

Insulated Metal Panels

SHED’s design uses standing seam insulated metal panels to realize multiple advantages. These lightweight, prefabricated panels form both the roof and walls of the building providing insulation, interior and exterior finishes, and waterproofing in one quick-to-install, energy-efficient, and low-mainten [...]

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