travelogue part three -days three and four &  even more food: day three simply rocked!  our little group of north americans (for now we had canadians among us), went to the big batimat show and gazed in wide wonder at our company’s booth.  that sounds like hyperbole and company pride, and granted, there was some of that, but in reality, this booth was huge!  just as a way of comparison, this booth had a coat room, a wet-bar, and an upstairs lounge.  (yeah, a lounge…upstairs)  ornaments hand-wrought from zinc, composite zinc, dri-design (www.dri-design.com) panels in zinc, solar on zinc, and rainwater goods (gutters and downspouts) made out of zinc, were just some of the contenders begging for some eye-time. 

the thing about batimat is that it is a huge show.  when a company exhibits there, they want (and need) to bring their a-game.  it is definitely go big or go home.  the other related thing about batimat is that if a company does not “go big,” they will be hard press to garner attention.  this is due simply to size.  this show is a weight loss program waiting to happen.  once again, every two years this show takes place.  we recommend it highly. 

after the show, and after losing about five solid pounds due to the march in, around, up and down the batimat show, we got together for a little dinner cruise up and down the seine -well, not all 482 miles of it, but the parts in and around paris landmarks.  what can you say about the way the french cook?  how about, oh la la, these people can cook. the weight lost was easily restored.   

day four brought about a free day for our batimat contingency.  participants could wander the city, go back to the show, sleep late, order room service or do whatever they liked.  the only contingency was that our group had to meet either in the lobby of our hotel in the early evening hours, or meet us in the lobby of the louvre a half-an-hour later. 

at every batimat show, the fine folks at vmzinc put together an event that we call “international night.”  during international night, attendees from around the world get together for a meal, conversation and some fun.  two years ago, this meant cooking class and a meal with french chefs aboard yachts on the seine.  this year it meant a scavenger type of hunt, followed by dinner and drinks -both events held in the louvre in the evening.  to say that it was over the top to have access to so many areas of the museum, and then to enjoy a fine meal inside of the louvre would be an understatement.  it was blissful. 

it gives us great pleasure to work for and with so many great people who know how to provide exceptional products coupled with a great sense of living and having fun.  we want to thank our reps and additional guests that attended this year and thank those that have attended in the past.  we also enjoyed seeing our french hosts and friends (more like family)once again.  we hope to see you, the reader, at a future show.  that would rock! -vm

Source: www.zincsense.com

repost from www.zincsense.com

The St. Botolphs Hall Apartments in London were designed by Matthew Lloyd Architects and feature NBK Terracotta TERRART®-LARGE in special colors. For more information visithttp://tinyurl.com/3pl89m3

Source: renatocilento.blogspot.com

Repost from the GKD pressroom

Levolux, the market leader in Solar Shading, is the driving force behind sustainability at Volvo’s Maidstone dealership, Lipscomb Motors, with an innovative and sustainable timber Fin Solar Shading system. The architect, Bisset Adams, required a solution that fitted perfectly with the bold Scandinavian image it had developed for Volvo dealerships across the country. Levolux responded by designing and manufacturing a bespoke system using the African hardwood Idigbo, as specified by the architect on the basis of the material’s environmental credentials. To access this case study visit http://tinyurl.com/3c4uzny

Richard H. Talaske, Talaske|Sound Thinking, acoustical consultant on the project indicated “Jazz in New Orleans is a mix of acoustic and amplified music. At the new Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, the hall needed to accommodate both, with only limited adjustable acoustics capability. We felt that sound diffusing finishes on strategic surfaces was the right design approach. For our past projects, RPG’s undulating product designs offered effective diffusion with excellent timbre of sound. Hence, we specified RPG again for Ellis.”Repost from RPG Facebook page

When you have your own business, your boss is the most demanding one: The Market. Only if you offer competitive and innovative products, the market will award you. This is the case of Buryat ( htt://www.buryat.es ), a catalan company located in Barcelona, which is specialized in rockwool technical solutions for fire insulation integrated in curtain wall systems. They invest efforts to improve their products according to the observation market needs. They are putting some shine on two issues: minimize the number of pieces and reduce the assembly time.

All of their systems are tested in laboratory according to the European Standards.

The new version of Buryat EI120, as solution for 1 meter fringe between slab concrete and curtain wall, is formed by four elements:
? High density rockwool insulation panel of 50 mm thickness.
? Espiga ACR: anchorage between panels.
? Square profile: anchorage for horizontal panel on the lower slab side.
? Angled: anchorage for vertical panel internal aluminium frame.

The system is formed by a rockwool vertical panel inside the aluminium frame, afterwards two horizontal panel situated one on the top and one on the lower side slab. The lower panel is anchoraged to the slab through the square profile. The top panel is fixed between the concrete slab and vertical panel.
The rockwool panels are anchoraged to the concrete slab, in order to achieve the independence between fire insulation system and curtain wall.

Finally, in order to protect the vertical aluminium profiles of the lower part, a new rockwool panel is assemblied to the vertical one through the Espiga anchorage. In the upper part, the same rockwool panel is assemblied and anchoraged to the vertical panel through Espiga anchorage.
The free spaces between the rockwool panels and the slab concrete must be filled with intumescent sealants.

The isolant fire integrated in a curtain wall have been tested in laboratory and the result is 120 minuts of stability and integrity.

Source: renatocilento.blogspot.com

Repost from the GKD pressroom

Wax Museum San Francisco California
MBH Architectural (www.mbharch.com)
Allied Mechanical (www.alliedmech.com)
VMZ Standing seam panel
QUARTZ-ZINC

The aim of this post is to present one of the celebrities in the engineering and facade world. It is a introduction to those who are unaware of Peter Rice’s achievements.

This great engineer contributed in facades and structures with such a important innovations. He cooperated to design buildings, nowadays considered icons of structures and façades.

Currenlty the most of façades designed and built, in some way contain his essence.

He set up as Structural Engineer in Ove Arup  firm from 1956 to 1977, afterwards he founded his own engineering firm, partnering with Martin Francis and Ian Ritchie.

The following points enhance some of the most important ideas of his philosophy and way of thinking:

-He believed the best buildings are the result of a symbiotic relationship between the architect and the engineer, where the engineer is the objective inventor and the architect the creative input.
-He was convinced that there was nothing mysterious about the process of innovation. He was never satisfied with mundane solutions. He took risks during the early stages of the design process.
– He combined advanced structural analysis techniques with investigations of materials in order to achieve the best structural systems.
– Peter confessed to learn just what he needed to know when he needed it.

According to Rice, the roles of the engineer are:

-To use the engineer’s understanding of materials and structure to make real the architectural designs.
-To innovate and to support the creativity of architects.

Among the most renowned construction he was involved in, we can mention the following:

-Sydney Opera House (1973, Jorn Utzon)

-Louvre Pyramid (Paris, 1988, Ming Pei)

-Lloyd’s of London (London, 1986, Richard Rogers)

-Stansted London Airport (1991)

-Cité des Sciences at La Villette (Paris,1987,Adrien Fainsilber)

The Centre Pompidou adopted the gerberette solution to achieve the long spans required to support a heavy library that could be moved anywhere in the building. One of Peter’s main contributions was his insistence on the use of cast steel for these pieces. The gerberette acted as a short beam propped on a circular column and tied down at the ened with a circular bar.

The curtain wall in the Cité des Sciences at La Villette has been the origin of the inexhaustible source of inspiration for the point-supported glass facades worlwide. The main innovations are:

-Drilled glass panels with countersunk holes for point fixings supports.
-Spherical bearings keeps all loads in the glass plane and eliminate local bending effects.
-Horizontal cable trusses resists out-of-plane wind forces.

In 1992 he was awarded the Royal Gold Metal for Architecture by the Royal Institute of British Architects for his achievements which let the advancement of architectures.

In 1994, the Harvard University established the Peter Rice Prize in recognition of the ideals and principles that he represented.

After his death, the engineering and architecture have lost one of their innovation engines.

It is advisable to read his two books: Structural Glass (Peter Rice, Hugh Dutton) and
An Engineer Imagines (Peter Rice).

Source: renatocilento.blogspot.com

Repost from the GKD pressroom

Structural glass symbolizes modern architecture and it is considered an added value to achieve all glass facade and non-metal supported transparent structures.

The prospect of shapping glass has contributed to attain a broad variety of aesthetical and structural options through oversized pieces of glass with complex geometries. Its versatility has allowed to achieve a better integration between the aesthetic and functional objectives.

The Casa da Musica in Porto (Rem Koolhas, 2004) is an example how to make the best of curved glass, because glass develops both functions: structure and enclosure. The glass shape increases the set stiffness and it is not necessary any metallic frame. Glass is anchoraged at the top and at the bottom part of its 6 meters length.

In order to achieve double-curved, spherical, curves with small radius and complex geometries, high temperatures are recquired during the manufacture process.

This post is under construction. In fact, it will be under construction during a long time. Creativity  is the limit, because curved glass contributes with the facades of the future.

Source: renatocilento.blogspot.com

Repost from the GKD pressroom

“We know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use” Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, recently said this sentence during the speech regarding the new Apple Headquarters in Cupertino (California, USA).

Facade units get bigger and bigger every year. Some colleagues engineers have thought that cladding world has gone mad, but it is not true. Innovations are moving ahead. The market demands it.

Architecture is demanding larger pieces, such as Apple Store in Shanghai, where the height of every glass facade is approximately 12 meters.

The main benefits (among others) can be noticed immediately:

-Reduction of glass joints, improving watertightness and increasing light transmission.

-Reduction of supporting claddings.

-Improved load carriage behaviour.

Certainly, Apple has innovated using largest glass panes in their own worldwide stores.

Recently, it has been published that Apple is going to renovate the Cube store on Fifth Avenue in New York, removing the 90 glass panes by using just 15 larger ones.

Another clue concerning this architectural trend was found in the last Glasstech Düsseldorf in October 2010, you could see a huge insulated glass panel of 18 meters x 3,3 meters, manufactured by Henze-Glas from Hörden, Germany.

Source: renatocilento.blogspot.com

repost from www.renatocilento.com