The Story of the Bucky Lab

A book about a university docent and one of his courses – why would you do that? And what is the academic impact? The question of impact, especially as it relates to the rapidly developing culture of publications in scientific journals, should be the topic of a separate discussion. With all of the related advantages and disadvantages it could fill an entire book – however, not this one. And yes, buildings do impact the user, the environment and the planner – those already active in the field, as well as the next generation that learns from the results and will enter their own discussion for future developments. A friend of Marcel Bilow’s and mine, Thomas Auer, known for his exceptional work as climate engineer with the company Transsolar in Stuttgart, Germany, has, for example, certainly made an impact, influencing and inspiring generations of architects and engineers. Faced with the decision of whether or not to continue spending the majority of his time with projects rather than as a teacher and researcher at TU Munich he based his decision on the premise: you can best multiply impact by affecting the next generation, buildings alone cannot achieve it. And affecting the next generation is the motivation for this book because it is the motivation for Marcel Bilow’s work and his approach to teaching, be it about a concrete product to be developed or an individual’s experience. It is about teaching students to physically exercise practical application rather than merely thinking about it: we can contemplate a hole in a wooden plank; however, actually creating it, experiencing the consequences and identifying limits and failures is the most valuable aspect. Any and all construction is based hereupon, a combination of both: the activity of constructing itself but also constructive thinking, thoroughly understanding a solution – essential skills that any architect needs to experience. And the tool to accomplish this is, of course, a practical, hands-on course. Going conform with the generally established tradition in construction-related university subjects at TU Delft of having students build small projects, the faculty at TU Delft has a history of conducting hands-on courses. But Marcel Bilow certainly breathed new life into these courses that are part of the Master’s program at the Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft: by setting up the Bucky Lab. Buckminster Fuller, constructor and inventor served as inspiration, for the name as well as for the program: to be able to think, conceive and realize sensible and practical solutions. It is, therefore, no surprise that Marcel became known as Dr. Bucky Lab. Is there more to the course? Yes, there is another, very important part that goes beyond practical application. It's all about stimulating the students’ desire to make things better, to introduce technical developments into construction, and to utilize new methods if they make sense in a given context. The course is designed to make the students look for traditional as well as non- traditional, out of the box ideas. With his constant questioning, continuously asking "Why?" Marcel Bilow drives his students to question every single step they take in a project, every design decision they make along the way, every choice of material. The course requires them to generate initial concepts that will be revisited, re-evaluated, redefined several times as they learn to focus on the important, justify their decisions and gain knowledge in conceptualizing and ultimately realizing their ideas. The experiences gained in the course are valuable for any project the students work on during their studies or in their later professional lives. Marcel Bilow has a brilliant mind, he is extremely motivated and motivating, sometimes a little stubborn but always driven by an innate desire to understand and, above all, to share his knowledge and experience. And this is what he does in the Bucky Lab, a course that is coined by his convictions and approach to disseminating knowledge as well as by interdisciplinary work that is embedded in and connected to the overall curriculum

Editorial

This issue of the Journal of Façade Design and Engineering is a result of the second façade conference, PowerSkin, held on January 17th 2019, in the context of the building trade fair ‘BAU’ in Munich. The conference was organized collaboratively by TU Munich, TU Darmstadt, and TU Delft. All three universities conduct high-impact research and education in the field of building envelopes. The conference featured a mix of practice and education experiences, as well as scientific contributions, and aimed to answer the key question of the 2019 conference: How can digital tools and methods promote changes that aim towards the decarbonisation of the built environment and the improvement of well-being? The 2019 conference focused on the envelope as an integral part of the building and its energy system, as well as the main driver to create comfort. Thus, the envelope is understood in its condition of being a complex interface to the social, economic, and climatic environment in which we build our cities. The interaction between these topics, the influences they create, and the digital tools that have been developed and used to design and engineer building envelopes are the main focus points of each of the papers published in this issue. We thank our guest editors Thomas Auer (TU Munich) and Jens Schneider (TU Darmstadt), and their respective teams, who have been key partners in creating this special issue

The Story of the Bucky Lab

A book about a university docent and one of his courses – why would you do that? And what is the academic impact? The question of impact, especially as it relates to the rapidly developing culture of publications in scientific journals, should be the topic of a separate discussion. With all of the related advantages and disadvantages it could fill an entire book – however, not this one. And yes, buildings do impact the user, the environment and the planner – those already active in the field, as well as the next generation that learns from the results and will enter their own discussion for future developments. A friend of Marcel Bilow’s and mine, Thomas Auer, known for his exceptional work as climate engineer with the company Transsolar in Stuttgart, Germany, has, for example, certainly made an impact, influencing and inspiring generations of architects and engineers. Faced with the decision of whether or not to continue spending the majority of his time with projects rather than as a teacher and researcher at TU Munich he based his decision on the premise: you can best multiply impact by affecting the next generation, buildings alone cannot achieve it. And affecting the next generation is the motivation for this book because it is the motivation for Marcel Bilow’s work and his approach to teaching, be it about a concrete product to be developed or an individual’s experience. It is about teaching students to physically exercise practical application rather than merely thinking about it: we can contemplate a hole in a wooden plank; however, actually creating it, experiencing the consequences and identifying limits and failures is the most valuable aspect. Any and all construction is based hereupon, a combination of both: the activity of constructing itself but also constructive thinking, thoroughly understanding a solution – essential skills that any architect needs to experience. And the tool to accomplish this is, of course, a practical, hands-on course. Going conform with the generally established tradition in construction-related university subjects at TU Delft of having students build small projects, the faculty at TU Delft has a history of conducting hands-on courses. But Marcel Bilow certainly breathed new life into these courses that are part of the Master’s program at the Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft: by setting up the Bucky Lab. Buckminster Fuller, constructor and inventor served as inspiration, for the name as well as for the program: to be able to think, conceive and realize sensible and practical solutions. It is, therefore, no surprise that Marcel became known as Dr. Bucky Lab. Is there more to the course? Yes, there is another, very important part that goes beyond practical application. It's all about stimulating the students’ desire to make things better, to introduce technical developments into construction, and to utilize new methods if they make sense in a given context. The course is designed to make the students look for traditional as well as non- traditional, out of the box ideas. With his constant questioning, continuously asking "Why?" Marcel Bilow drives his students to question every single step they take in a project, every design decision they make along the way, every choice of material. The course requires them to generate initial concepts that will be revisited, re-evaluated, redefined several times as they learn to focus on the important, justify their decisions and gain knowledge in conceptualizing and ultimately realizing their ideas. The experiences gained in the course are valuable for any project the students work on during their studies or in their later professional lives. Marcel Bilow has a brilliant mind, he is extremely motivated and motivating, sometimes a little stubborn but always driven by an innate desire to understand and, above all, to share his knowledge and experience. And this is what he does in the Bucky Lab, a course that is coined by his convictions and approach to disseminating knowledge as well as by interdisciplinary work that is embedded in and connected to the overall curriculum

efnMOBILE 2.0 / Efficient Envelopes

Based on the experiences of efnMOBILE 1.0 the hands-on student workshop activities and exhibitions took place in different evironments and locations encouraging new technologies and methodologies. Like efnMOBILE 1.0 the new workshop series efnMOBILE 2.0 provides the European Facade Network (efn), its conferences and the connected professional community with a local platform for communication, exhibition, innovative development and interaction. efnMOBILE 2.0 is reaching out to be developed from a European communication and technology exchange instrument into an international tool to exchange with the global facade community. All events of efnMOBILE 2.0 follow an overall theme: ‘Efficient Envelopes’. Focusing towards adaptive and transdisciplinary approaches to improve the building envelope’s thus the building’s performance through human-centered solutions in facade technology. The task is to inspire the upcoming generation of architects, designers and engineers to allow themselves to follow uncharted paths of development, think outside the box, to build showcase examples, and to come up with ground-breaking solutions – for a better design as it relates to climate, health and an overall building design approach. The concept is supposed to foster the dialogue around sustainable design and development and to increase awareness and actionable solutions for sustainable design. In 2016 and 2017 efnMOBILE 2.0 has been present at three annual conferences of efn: Lucerne 2016, Delft 2017 and Detmold 2017 and additionally at the glasstec fair 2016 in Dusseldorf (Germany), and in 2017 at the University of Antwerp and the ICBEST conference in Istanbul (Turkey). Each event includes a three-to-five-days-workshop on location – to inspire and innovate - followed by a period designated to design development and engineering, and concludes with a final presentation to the professional public at fairs, conferences or in the educational context. During each event, the participants build mock-ups of different scales, do field research or intercultural exploration. To reach this goal the project contributes to the following outcomes: increased knowledge sharing between the various European research and education centres and between those centres and industry and further international actors. development of novel concepts and technologies and/or the new combinations of existing technologies. development of new knowledge such as effective evaluation tools/methods for adaptive facades. start of new collaborations and research projects in the area of facades technologies. This time efnMOBILE 2.0 also included an international online survey on facade education with responses from more than 200 participants. The survey addressed practitioners and scholars and was focussing on the needs and expectations of facade industry and consultancy. The results of the survey will help to further improve the existing programs and to develop new programs overseas. efnMOBILE 2.0 has been made possible through the funding of the ALCOA Foundation. The editors and the efn-members like to thank ALCOA Foundation for supporting this initiative to make building envelope design and connected educational programmes more efficient and successful by creating a platform for organized sustainable creative thinking

Powerskin Conference: Proceedings

The “third skin†of human beings – the building envelope – has a long history of development with a major impact on architecture. As an interface between inside and outside, facades not only determine aspects such as performance and energy efficiency, they also determine the aesthetics of buildings and cities; to the extend that they can create cultural identity. The invention of the curtain wall made facades independent from the building structure, but it remained an important – yet passive – element.  Powerskin Conference: Proceedings, January 19th 2017– Munich &nbsp

Imagine: Façades

Façade technology of the 20th century is related to the dissolution of the massive wall into a separation of structure and façade. Looking at the development of façade technology, after 60 years of curtain wall systems, 30 years of element-façade systems and ten years of experience with the integration of environmental services in double façades, it can be concluded that the peak of optimisation has been reached. No further technical developments can be expected by continuing to apply extra layers for each additional technical function. Understanding façades - or better envelopes - as part of an integral building, we have to see that creating the future envelope has to be done on a ’network’ basis: employing systems - but also methods of thinking - which provide the possibility to develop different aspects simultaneously and combine them as required. The envelope has to be seen as a functional part of the entire building, serving a part of the demand by providing the necessary technologies and qualities. In this regard, we have to withdraw from material and structure-orientated thinking and construction – we have to develop the envelope as a hybrid system: materials, technologies and production processes have to be integrated into the summation and combined into an all-encompassing result. Façades comprise various themes covering strategic, material and technological developments. Aspects such as function integration, networking of elements, new structures and materials as well as the addition of functions to existing structures will be investigated and explained in 85 or so concrete ideas.&nbsp

Imagine: Deflateables

Pneumatic structures are thoroughly investigated and developed during the 1960s. However, the energy crisis and aesthetic developments impeded the use of these structures as a mainstream construction method. Nowadays, they are typically used in special areas of architecture and design. Deflateables concentrates on the very limited knowledge of vacuum constructions and develops a range of aesthetic, technical and functional design possibilities. However, very few designs that use pressurised constructions have actually been realised, even right down to the present day - despite the fact that this technology offers simple, positive aspects: the air pressure of the earth can be used as a stabilising and form-giving parameter, creating a specific and inspiring shape. In addition, the very nature of this technology provides varying degrees of thermal and acoustic insulation. Of course, there are weak points such as potential leakage and the need for high pressurisation of the construction; but new material technologies and specific structural concepts will bring solutions to such issues. Exploiting the possibilities of extremely light and energetically active constructions, deflateables are one of the promising fields of architectural and design developments. The chance to create structures that can move and react to requests such as user and climate requirements, as well as formative demands, lifts this topic onto the level of a realistic and usable technology for as-yet unknown design possibilities.&nbsp

Imagine: Deflateables

Pneumatic structures are thoroughly investigated and developed during the 1960s. However, the energy crisis and aesthetic developments impeded the use of these structures as a mainstream construction method. Nowadays, they are typically used in special areas of architecture and design. Deflateables concentrates on the very limited knowledge of vacuum constructions and develops a range of aesthetic, technical and functional design possibilities. However, very few designs that use pressurised constructions have actually been realised, even right down to the present day - despite the fact that this technology offers simple, positive aspects: the air pressure of the earth can be used as a stabilising and form-giving parameter, creating a specific and inspiring shape. In addition, the very nature of this technology provides varying degrees of thermal and acoustic insulation. Of course, there are weak points such as potential leakage and the need for high pressurisation of the construction; but new material technologies and specific structural concepts will bring solutions to such issues. Exploiting the possibilities of extremely light and energetically active constructions, deflateables are one of the promising fields of architectural and design developments. The chance to create structures that can move and react to requests such as user and climate requirements, as well as formative demands, lifts this topic onto the level of a realistic and usable technology for as-yet unknown design possibilities.&nbsp

Imagine: Façades

Façade technology of the 20th century is related to the dissolution of the massive wall into a separation of structure and façade. Looking at the development of façade technology, after 60 years of curtain wall systems, 30 years of element-façade systems and ten years of experience with the integration of environmental services in double façades, it can be concluded that the peak of optimisation has been reached. No further technical developments can be expected by continuing to apply extra layers for each additional technical function. Understanding façades - or better envelopes - as part of an integral building, we have to see that creating the future envelope has to be done on a ’network’ basis: employing systems - but also methods of thinking - which provide the possibility to develop different aspects simultaneously and combine them as required. The envelope has to be seen as a functional part of the entire building, serving a part of the demand by providing the necessary technologies and qualities. In this regard, we have to withdraw from material and structure-orientated thinking and construction – we have to develop the envelope as a hybrid system: materials, technologies and production processes have to be integrated into the summation and combined into an all-encompassing result. Façades comprise various themes covering strategic, material and technological developments. Aspects such as function integration, networking of elements, new structures and materials as well as the addition of functions to existing structures will be investigated and explained in 85 or so concrete ideas.&nbsp

Inclusive Green Finance

This chapter discusses challenges and opportunities related to developing inclusive green finance (IGF) approaches. It highlights the importance of social risk and equity concerns in devising green policies and outlines how IGF can be instrumental for a just transition to a sustainable economy. Moreover, the chapter presents a framework for policy approaches on how to leverage IGF for climate change adaptation and mitigation. It also reflects on how IGF-related policies could contribute to a sustainable recovery after the global pandemic and help countries meet commitments made under the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Agenda