HIGH PERFORMANCE CASE STUDIES: 300-level
SESSION 14
DATE // START TIME // ROOM NUMBER:
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 – 4:00pm – Altman B
ABSTRACT:
While advances in building technology and professional education programs have tended to fragment the design industries, Integrated Design concepts reveal a growing commitment to improving the built environment through a more holistic and process-oriented design approach. This panel will present a series of pioneering European building designs inspired by these ideas.
MODERATOR:
Mitsu Edwards, Structural Engineer, Project Director, RFR Consulting Engineers
SPEAKERS:
Peter Arbour, Facade Architect, Project Manager, RFR Consulting Engineers
Scott Severson, Project Architect, Morphosis Architects
Merritt Bucholz, Principal, Bucholz McEvoy Architects
William Logan, Senior Principal, Israel Berger and Associates
DESCRIPTION:
Integrated Design has been growing in fits and starts for many decades, though only today are the regulatory and economic motivators demanding that designers and developers respond to the pressures of what may otherwise seem common sense. The practice of façade and curtain wall design, though young relative to the basic disciplines of structural engineering and architecture, is the field in which Integrated Design is making the most direct impact on our design practices and our buildings. The experts of the panel will be available for what promises to be a lively discussion of the issues of Integrated Design as they relate to these projects and to professional practitioners around the world.
Mitsu Edwards and Peter Arbour will present the work of RFR Consulting Engineers, a Paris-based bureau d’etude founded by the late Peter Rice, which has specialized in the integration of architecture and engineering practices since the early 1980s. Since its inception, RFR’s work has been characterized by a multi-disciplinary approach, bringing the collaborative and contradictory priorities of architects and engineers together within each project design team. RFR – with international offices in Paris, France; Stuttgart, Germany; Shanghai, China; and Abu Dhabi, UAE – has been in the vanguard of envelope consulting with the inclusion of environmental, structural, and architectural innovations in its approach to every project. The continuing expansion of disciplines within RFR has kept the company at the cutting edge of Integrated Design and its methodologies as practiced in Europe and throughout the world.
In recent years, RFR has been the façade consultant of the Tour Phare at La Defense in Paris by Morphosis Architects and the Elm Park Development in Dublin, Ireland by Bucholz McEvoy Architects. Both projects will be discussed in detail with their respective architects.
Morphosis Architects will present their 300-meter Tour Phare tower for La Defense, Paris. The project, laureate of a high-profile international design competition in 2007 is slated to begin construction in 2011. Beginning with the competition entry and continuing throughout its development, the design of the tower has been guided by the precepts of Integrated Design, successfully negotiating the constraints of stringent environmental regulations, demands for user comfort, and a stunning architectural ambition, all within the context of the costs and risks of a large-scale, urban development.
Merritt Bucholz will discuss the work of his firm, the Dublin- and Berlin-based Bucholz McEvoy Architects, and, in particular, the Elm Park Development in Dublin, Ireland. This prize-winning, mixed-use project comprises nine buildings, and has successfully realized an ambitious agenda of strategic siting, enhanced use of natural daylight and natural ventilation, and a radical reduction of energy consumption by mechanical systems. A masterful example of architectural beauty and environmental performance, Elm Park stands as a challenge to designers of all disciplines.
William Logan is among the foremost building envelope designers in the world today. As the Design Partner of Israel Berger and Associates, he has designed façades for Renzo Piano, Herzog de Meuron, Cesar Pelli and many other prominent, international architects. He will present several of his projects that embody the principles of Integrated Design, from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France to the new Columbia University Campus in New York City.
