The disconnection
of structure from cladding or envelope is one of the enduring topics of modern
and industrial building culture. Frame structures in concrete, steel or timber
released architecture from load bearing walls stereotyping aesthetics and
expressivity on an abstraction dictated by mass-produced sections and profiles
suspended from load-bearing supports. The skeletal steel and aluminum glazed
curtain wall developed into an emblem of this modernity and of the international
style specifically.
Reacting to the advancement of curtain walls as a clichéd architectural practise,
a segment of latter modernists posited precast concrete panels to restore
building’s eloquence. Marcel Breuer’s IBM France Research Center and Paul
Rudolf’s Blue cross and Blue shield in Boston the architectural potential of
elaborate precast concrete curtain walls. Further, the modular load-bearing
precast panels in the Philadelphia police headquarters designed by Geddes Brecher Qualls Cunningham and structural engineer
August Komendant symbolised this
revolution illustrating heavy-duty precast concrete as an efficient, adaptable
and expressive architectonic scheme.
Completed in Berlin, Germany in 2012 The Tour Total Raster
Façade Precast Concrete System designed by architect Barkow
Leibinger elaborates on
the animated potential of the precast load-bearing curtain wall. With a glazed
to opaque ratio of 60 – 40, the exterior load-bearing wall could provide a
flexible narrow floor plate as interior columns are potentially eliminated as
interior loads would be transferred directly to the envelope. In a standard floor
plate, only the exterior grid columns would be replaced by the structural facing.
The concrete sandwich assembly is insulated diminishing
thermal bridging associated with aluminum framed curtain walls. The sandwich
elements are composed of an inner structural grid of columns and beams to
which an exterior layer of concrete and an interior layer of thermal insulation
are laminated to produce an insulated skeleton. The system is composed of basic
two-story units, which are connected by steel male –female inserts. Each
element in the Tour Total is cast with a repetitive crease or vertical fold conveying
an infinitely differentiated pattern from a singular staggered element. Digitally
fabricated formwork simplifies production and etching the 50 cm panel’s thickness.
The sculptural curtain interacts with natural daylighting to produce a rippling
effect that enhances the envelopes manifestation.
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| The Tour Total precast concrete wall components |
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