The PhD students in building technology of the associated Universities of Ferrara, IUAV and Bologna decided to propose, a discussion theme about the relations between techniques, materials and design conception (Table 1). They focused their attention on the topic of the architectural interface, taking advan-tage, during the workshop before the seminar, of the cross–disciplinary nature of their PhD course.2
The wide range of disciplines represented in the teachers board of the course is evident in the different nature of the research projects developed in the last few years. They branch out from product and process innovation to building requalifi-cation and from building design methods right up to traditional and innovative materials and techniques for the preservation of historical buildings. For such rea-son it has been possible to focus on the topic from different points of view. The multi–disciplinary approach became a great opportunity to join different method-ologies with regard to technological innovation for the design of the architectural interface. The research started from strictly technological areas related to the assem-bling process, to carry on with the techniques and materials along with all the issues related to the mass communication and to the information flow. Nowadays, the architectural design takes advantage of the use of graphic codes; writing and symbols are characterizing elements for surfaces finishing and building envelope decoration. Such phenomenon, as Ibelings highlights, is emerging from the loss of some aesthetic and spatial features of architecture, resulting in a gradual reduc-tion of adornments and a lack of contents. Furthermore, the external surface of the building, as the component which is mostly related with the public space, gains more relevance in regards to the communicative purposes of the project.
1University of Ferrara.
Taking part in preliminary works and in paper writing: Enrico Arbizzani, Giovanni Avosani, Luca Belatti, Edoardo Bit, Elena Giacomello, Maria Veronica Giordano, Luca Magarotto, Andrea Pasquato, Fabiana Raco, Cristina Vanucci, Marco Zuppiroli.
2The actual essay is an abstract of the seminar work.
Massimo Lauria (edited by) Produzione dell’Architettura tra tecniche e progetto. Ricerca e innovazione per il territorio = Architectural Planning between build and design techniques. Glocal oriented research and innovation, ISBN 978-88-8453-988-5 (online) ISBN 978-88-8453-990-8 (print) © 2010 Firenze University Press
129 Building design methods for architecture interface
As a result, the contemporary building envelope, tends to turn into a prop-er means of communication through the use of encoded standards borrowed from the mass media. This approach increases the architecture’s capability of sending messages; in fact, both the iconic value of these buildings and the wider use of the information technologies applied to the architectural process, encourage a constant information flow. “All the external partitions of the buildings become smart surfaces, photosensitive membranes that describe, design and pervade the spatial organization of the volumes, revealing their function. They are walls weaved of seductive information.”3
As a result of this change in the architectural design scenario, new forms of interaction between the user and architecture are emerging; the building skin is no longer designed only as a system of spatial elements or of containers, but especial-ly as a vehicle of information. The difficulties of defining this new design trend with the jargon of architecture and architectural technology, require to borrow a word from the language of information technology:4interface. The interface is the space of interaction between different environmental systems and it is conceived to regulate the way these systems communicate to each other. The interface reveals both the building functions and eventually the exchange of messages and informa-tion. The nature of such messages could be explicit or not, either in line or not with the purpose of the building itself. In the design of the architectural skin as an interface, the attention is focused on the space of interaction, where the techno-logical performances of the envelope become available for the user.
The analysis of several case studies – among which the façade of Certosa of Pavia, the façade of Duomo of Modena, the façade of the Library of Sainte–Geneviène in Paris (France), the Library of the Academy in Eberswalde(Germany) designed by Herzog and De Meuron Architects, the Tower of Winds of Yokohama (Japan) designed by Toyo Ito Architects, the KPN Telecom Office Tower in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) designed by Renzo Piano Architects – includes the selection of those solutions that define new forms of interaction between building system and user. Cases in which the architectural design does not stop with the conception of technological elements, but pushes its boundaries to the design of the information itself.
Two different possibilities of interaction between users, surrounding envi-ronment 5and architectural envelope have been defined.
3Colafranceschi D., Architettura in superficie, Gangemi editore, Roma 1995.
4Cfr. Bonsiepe G., Dall’oggetto all’interfaccia, Feltrinelli, Milano 1995.
5Cfr. Ciribini G., Introduzione alla tecnologia del design, F. Angeli, Milano 1979.
They can be called static or dynamic,6it depends on the way the space is conceived in the support area – on the closing surface – in relation to time. The static communicative interaction of a building envelope is its capability to express an explicit message through its fixed external shape or finish, so that does not change in relation to time.7The static communicative interaction is obtained with invariable informative strategies and with technologies which can draw, engrave or cover the building surfaces which permanently represent an icon of meaning. Some of the most common procedures are: serigraphy, the adhesive films glued on transparent or opaque surfaces, the engraved or painted surfaces of the past, etc.
The dynamic communicative interaction of a building envelope is a system which makes use of technical solution to transmit different transfer-able signs, perceived as such from the users of the surroundings in a specific range of time. The building skins that transmit images in a dynamic way, fre-quently exploit the use of illumination controlled by electronic devices. In most cases, although the use of dynamic components or mechanical parts integrated in the envelope would allow to change the message in a mechanical way, the designers, avoid the use of such components, in favour of the more sophisticat-ed electronic systems. The technologies ussophisticat-ed in the construction of the architec-tural interface can vary according to the strucarchitec-tural support and the material used. Considering, for instance, the transparent surfaces, it is possible to obtain visual effects with different techniques: on the one hand, through the use of sandblasting and serigraphy (static interface), on the other hand, using electron-ic components and develectron-ices such as electronelectron-ic panels, fluorescent lights, LED or LCD screens mostly off–site assembled, independent from any specific struc-tural function (dynamic interface).
The brief analysis, presented thus far, would represent a starting point for a possible scientific classification of the technologies used in the design of archi-tectural interfaces, conceived as ‹a defined system of bound parts (linked together and independent from each other), which act as whole, characterized by complexity, that relates with human being and environment as a medium.8
6Cfr. Gasparini K., Design in superficie, Francoangeli, Milano 2009.
7Nevertheless, the perception of a building can change infinite times during the range of time, as the day goes by. But, the message expressed, in this case, is always the same, constant and invariable.
8McLuhan M., Gli strumenti del comunicare, Net, Milano, 2002.
FRANCESCOBAGNATO, MARTINOMILARDI1