Smartwrap - Building envelope material of the future?

[Dover]

SmartWrap™ is the building envelope of the future: a composite that integrates the currently segregated functions of a conventional wall and combines them into one advanced composite. The intention of the pavilion is to explain the concept of the wrap in its architectural and artistic context, to describe its various components, and demonstrate the transfer technologies associated with it.


http://www.kierantimberlake.com/research/smartwrap_research_1.html#

http://www.kierantimberlake.com/articles/dupont_03_1.html#

SmartWrap™ is the building envelope of the future: a composite that integrates the currently segregated functions of a conventional wall and combines them into one advanced composite. The intention of the pavilion is to explain the concept of the wrap in its architectural and artistic context, to describe its various components, and demonstrate the transfer technologies associated with it.

Efficient
SmartWrap™ replaces the conventional "bulky" wall with a composite of millimeter scale that can be erected in a fraction of conventional building time and with greater ease.

Mass Customizable
SmartWrap™ can be produced for an infinite number of conditions and desired aesthetic programs. The pattern with which one would print the wrap is subject to the needs of a particular project usage.

Inspired by material science and the printing industry, SmartWrap™ utilizes innovative products rolled and printed onto fabrics and plastic films in roll-to-roll processes. The idea is realized through the transfer of technologies from other industries to provide for the following selected criteria: Shelter, Climate Control, Lighting and Information Display, and Power.

Shelter Polyester Film Substrate
Protection from rain and wind is provided by a polyester film which also acts as the substrate for the various other SmartWrap™ layers.

Examples of polyester polymers in use.
Polyester and its derivative polyethyleneapthalate (PET) have been used in a variety of applications from food and beverage containers to clothing. PET is colorless and transparent, inexpensive, quick drying and mildew resistant, with low moisture absorption and high mechanical strength. Ink-jet printing and roll-coating onto PEN/PET can be done under normal room conditions, eliminating the cost and complication of clean-rooms, high temperatures, and vacuum manufacturing for final assembly.

Climate Control Phase Change Materials
To moderate temperature SmartWrap™ contains micro-capsules of Phase Change Materials (PCM's). The microcapsules are embedded into a polymer resin and then extruded into a film....>

http://www.kierantimberlake.com/research/smartwrap_research_3.html#





Pennsylvania Gazette 2003


Design alumni Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake, the architects for the new Melvin J. and Claire Levine Hall on Penn's campus, are on a mission to "refabricate" their profession.

by John Prendergast

The transparent glass façade of the new Levine Hall makes a striking impression on the viewer, but the very first thought that comes to mind on seeing the building is: "How did they fit that there?"

The 48,000-square-foot, six-story home for the Department of Computer and Information Science, dedicated last April, sits on space formerly occupied by a service and parking zone tucked in among the School of Engineering's Towne Building and Graduate Research Wing (GRW) and the English Department's Bennett Hall. Named for Melvin J. Levine W'46 and his wife Claire, who donated $5 million toward the $15.5 million pricetag, Levine Hall physically and symbolically links the engineering buildings, and also creates a new campus vista by opening Chancellor Walk, previously used for parking, as the main entrance from 34th Street and landscaping the surrounding area. A second entrance was created on the Walnut Street side, where Levine joins with GRW.

The building features a double-height entrance lobby and a 150-seat auditorium, department and faculty offices, and lab and meeting space. The floor heights are 14 feet, which, along with some modest ramping, made it possible to link the differing floorplates of the three buildings. The project also included construction of a "cyber-lounge" in the former garage of the Towne Building, and creation of a new courtyard between Levine and the new bioengineering building, Skirkanich Hall, to be constructed on the 33rd Street side.

Levine Hall is the first building on campus to be designed by Kieran-Timberlake Associates LLP, the Philadelphia-based architecture firm headed by Stephen Kieran GAr'76 and James Timberlake GAr'77, who also teach a final-semester design laboratory for master's students in architecture in the School of Design. In its emphasis on knitting together disparate elements, its mixing of materials and textures, and its use of innovative building technology—the glass curtain-wall is exceptionally energy-efficient and was pre-assembled off-site for ease of construction —Levine Hall is representative of an architectural practice in which, as Kieran puts it, "we are as much mechanics as conceptual thinkers, or even more so."...>

http://www.kierantimberlake.com/articles/penn_gazette_1.html#


Future Worlds:

http://www.kierantimberlake.com/research/future_worlds_1.html#

[pscot]

1. So our future is living in tents

made of petro-chemicals?

[Javaman]

2. Yes and all our children will be named after rock bands...

this is my daughter; Van Halen and my son; Concrete blond.