Comments on: Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture by David Adjaye and FAB

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:00:47 +0000

I think perforated metal facades allow you to make your building look like a singular object, and that sort of object singularity has been something a lot of architects and designers have been working with in the past few years it seems.

Buildings are usually made up of lots of bits: walls, roofs, windows, doors, gutters, materials, posts, beams, columns, etc. But by wrapping all this mess up in a perforated screen, you can diminish the visual 'noise', and yes, control sunlight and views.

I wonder if it comes out of the sort of OMA detailing approach, where they hide so much… I think there is something quite sculptural about that kind of singular object approach, it can also be quite scaleless.

Hmm, need a better theorist than me to talk about this…

By: bill

bill — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:48:22 +0000

Wow, two intelligent and well reasoned comments in a row… that's awesome.

By: MarcoL

MarcoL — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:55:31 +0000

Perforated steel screens have always been available. It is however relatively new that customized perforated screens have become an affordable option. But let's be honest about this, there is an (obvious) fashion aspect to architecture. The use of perforated metal screens really isn't primarely related to the availabily of perforated metal screens, nor to their uniquely excellent performance as sun regulators or vista controllers. It is an aestetic choice which can be sufficiently defended in terms of function to get built. And as such it is part of a fashion of using patterned (metal) surfaces. One could even pretty much define early buildings of Herzog & de Meuron as the ultimate source of the fashion, though a fashion never comes from one source only. And one could also safely predict that – despite the need of sun regulators and vista controllers – this specific type of façade will somehow rarely come up in propositions in – say – 20 years.

Nothing wrong with that, I quite like these façades, despite getting a bit tired of seeing the trick being overused, but let's not deny the fashion aspect of architecture. One can date any building by the size and colour of their bricks, the colour of the glass and the type of window frames.

By: Colonel Pancake

Colonel Pancake — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:35:35 +0000

Did Adjaye close his New York office?

By: Shawn

Shawn — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:25:37 +0000

Chris –
That's kind of like saying "bricks, how original" or "glass windows, how original" fact is that perforated screens are a very pragmatic (and often visually appealing) building element that can solve issues such as sun regulation, and control of vistas. Its only recently that the cost of producing these has become so affordable that many designers now use then – NOT as I think you might be suggesting as some kind of fashion/trend.