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Thomas Schroepfer Associate Professor Department of Architecture |
Publications (selection, for a complete list of publications see Curriculum Vitae)
Material Design: Informing Architecture by Materiality
Over the last decade, design practitioners and educators throughout the world have developed a strong interest in the study and innovative exploration of the use of materials. Material Design explores the possibility of informing architecture based on a new taxonomy of materials. At the core of this approach lies an investigation that emphasizes a tactile and sensorial immediacy of physical artifacts, while establishing an abstract exploration of their potential sans project or program constraints. This approach to materials differs significantly from currently prevalent architectural classification systems dealing with materials and building products, which are traditionally based in applications and material content only. Rather, the approach argued in Material Design emphasizes the potential of working with inherent material qualities and properties on a 1:1-scale stripped raw of their conventional context. Part One of the book addresses main dimensions including historical, cultural, conceptual, philosophical, ethical, and technological aspects and argues for a re-conceptualization of materials that acknowledges the complex interplay of properties, performances, operations, and strategies in design on the basis of a number of key concepts such as “Modulation.” Part Two offers an exhaustive discussion of the various concepts exploring them in terms of material qualities, operations, performances and design strategies. Each concept is illustrated with a large number of examples, including historical and contemporary projects. Part Three provides an outlook on the topic of materials in design including a discussion of pressing issues such as building sustainability, material life cycles, and other emerging material trends.
Material Design: New Concepts for Exploration (19th Inha International Design Workshop)
This publication documents the results of the 19th Inha University International Desgin Workshop in 2008 titled “Material Design: New Concepts for Exploration” that had been led by the authors and joined by students and faculty from several Korean architecture schools. The focus of the investigation had been so-called smart materials, a term used to describe materials that have changeable properties and that are able to reversibly change their shape or color in response to physical and/or chemical influences such as light, temperature, or the application of an electric field. The materials chosen for exploration were those with the highest potential for innovative use in architectural design, including photochromics, thermochromics, electroluminescents, and shape-memory alloys. Over the course of the workshop students and faculty investigated methods of fabrication, production, and construction. The potential of smart materials for architectural design was subsequently explored through the design of a series of small buildings.
Exploring Materials in Design
Transurban: Charting Experiments for Cities of the Future – Case Study 02: solarCity
Transurban is an ambitious project that charts design ideals, ideas and processes of recent and current experiments for cities of the future. The idea of sustainable cities is examined here in more than the environmental and ecological aspects, the emergent forms of urbanism documented and analyzed for lessons that inform on the shape of cities to come. These built experiments embody complex topics of design, materials, building technologies, and environmental strategies as well as models of affordability, but at the same time explore new trajectories in the development of the city. Topographies of change re-contour the forms of architecture and urbanism as we know it, and do not conform to a generic type, but create in concert a shift of paradigms. The patterns that emerge reveal complexity and integrated thinking across disciplines. TransUrban charts this terrain to find applicable design strategies for the future. SolarCity, the second in a series of case studies, describes the guiding principles and their implementation in the planning and design of a new major development of a sustainable city district in Linz, Austria: the project currently comprises about 1,300 homes and 3,000 inhabitants. It was designed as a flagship development for renewable energies in urban design and includes projects by architects like Foster and Partners, Richard Rogers, and Thomas Herzog and landscape architects like Peter Latz and Herbert Dreiseitl. Construction time of the nucleus of solarCity took place from 1995 to 2005.
Emerging Forms of Sustainable Urbanism This article discusses emerging forms of sustainable architecture and urbanism in the 21st century based on two recently completed case studies in Europe: Vauban describes the guiding principles in the design of a new major urban development in Freiburg, Germany, a project that is widely seen as one of the most positive European examples of environmental thinking in relation to urban design. SolarCity describes the design of a flagship development for renewable energies in urban design in Linz, Austria that includes projects by architects such as Foster and Partners, Richard Rogers, and Thomas Herzog as well as landscape architects such as Peter Latz and Herbert Dreiseitl.
Transurban: Charting Experiments for Cities of the Future – Case Study 01: Vauban
Transurban is an ambitious project that charts design ideals, ideas and processes of recent and current experiments for cities of the future. The idea of sustainable cities is examined here in more than the environmental and ecological aspects, the emergent forms of urbanism documented and analyzed for lessons that inform on the shape of cities to come. These built experiments embody complex topics of design, materials, building technologies, and environmental strategies as well as models of affordability, but at the same time explore new trajectories in the development of the city. Topographies of change re-contour the forms of architecture and urbanism as we know it, and do not conform to a generic type, but create in concert a shift of paradigms. The patterns that emerge reveal complexity and integrated thinking across disciplines. TransUrban charts this terrain to find applicable design strategies for the future. This first in a planned series of publications describes the guiding principles and the complex processes in the planning and design of a new major development of a sustainable city district that is currently nearing completion: Vauban, a 38-hectare former barracks site near the town center of Freiburg, Germany. The site was purchased by the city in 1994 with the goal to convert it into a flagship environmental and social project. It comprises 2,000 homes to house 5,000 people, as well as business units to provide about 500-600 jobs and is widely seen as one of the most positive examples in Europe of environmental thinking in relation to urban design.
Integrating Material Culture This article describes 1:1 material explorations within the architecture program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design via a newly established material research library and database, the Materials Collection, and a first year architecture course titled Materials and Construction: An Introduction to Techniques, Composition, and Strategies that integrates the Materials Collection as a teaching tool. On a broader scale, Integrating Material Culture also refers to the school's initiative to integrate a "material culture" in its pedagogy, defined by the notion of material research as a process of innovation in design.
Globalization and Building Practice 1
Globalization and Building Practice 1 investigates different types of global building projects, both in breadth and depth through qualitative analyses of interviews with design and building professionals, quantitative analyses of recent global projects, and four in-depth case studies, including Behnisch Architects’ Genzyme Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Foster and Partners’ Hearst Tower in New York, New York. The study shows to what degree building practice is no longer as place-bound as it was before and speculates about the shape of things to come in the future building environment. The following title in the series is forthcoming: Globalization and Building Practice 2: Four Case Studies in Asia.
Relational Geographies of Building Practice
In building practice, an increasing spatial reach and density of global interconnectedness have woven complex webs and networks of relations between clients, architects, builders, and suppliers. This investigation analyzes these developments and their implications for building practice. To reflect their unevenness, the study suggests a new analytic framework that cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries and synthesizes the increasingly fluid and interdependent nature of a more and more global building environment.
Editorial Work Façades: Principles of Construction
Façades determine the appearance of a building. Hence, they constitute a major element in architecture. At the same time, the building’s envelope has important functions to fulfill, such as lighting, weatherproofing, thermal insulation, load transfer and sound insulation. Over the past 15 years, façades have become increasingly complex – ‘intelligent’ facades, for instance, adapt to changing climate and lighting conditions. This book demonstrates the principles of façade construction and provides guidelines for appropriate detailing. It systematically describes the most common types, such as post-and-beam façade, curtain wall, corridor façade or double façade. Numerous drawings made especially for the book explain the principles of different types of façades, which are then illustrated with built examples. The following titles in the series are forthcoming: Principles of Construction: Components and Connections in Architecture, Principles of Construction: Building Types in Architecture, Principles of Construction: Materials in Architecture, Principles of Construction: Modular Systems.
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