Boston Valley Terra Cotta

What an amazing week in Buffalo with Boston Valley Terra Cotta, University at Buffalo and Carnegie Mellon University at #ACAW2024. Today we wrapped up the fourth and final day with a symposium, bringing all the professional teams together to present their work, the lessons learnt and next steps. We could not be happier with our architectural ceramic assembly; a fantastic collaboration between Make Architects and Arup, exploring the potential for terra cotta to control and slow rainwater and encourage biocolonisation. Very special thanks to John Krouse, Andrew Pries, Mic Patterson PhD, Omar Khan, Greg Borowiak and Andy Brayman for allowing us to join and for all their support.

Recently, PC&P attended the 2024 Architectural Ceramics Assemblies Workshop (ACAW) hosted by Boston Valley Terra Cotta. Our project targets the growing demand for resilient outdoor, urban furniture while extending architectural design for indoor/outdoor workspaces and play places. We refined our previous ACAW 2022 slip cast modular terra cotta seating system by focusing on greater modular variations, modular fastening and securing systems, and integrated lighting and planting. The design features a warm, lustrous bronze glazing that alludes to the traditional bronze figures and sculptures that animate many of the world’s most celebrated urban landscapes.  Thank you University at Buffalo for hosting us! Also thanks to Selux Lighting and One Lux Lighting consultants for advising on our lighting design. #design #architecture #furnituredesign

Team BEHNISCH ARCHITEKTEN with Transsolar KlimaEngineering, knippershelbig and TriPyramid Structures presented our facade prototype which is designed to harvest rainwater on facades to lower the urban heat island effect along with 8 other teams doing applied research in the field of architectural terra cotta hosted by contractor Boston Valley Terra Cotta. Boston Valley Terra Cotta University at Buffalo Michelle Lee Ryan Maruyama Erik Hegre AIA, NCARB #facade #architecture #terracotta #thermal #confort #cooling #system #behnischarchitekten

Still buzzing of the excitement from the incredible experience I had presenting alongside Make Architects at #ACAW2024 just yesterday! What a fantastic opportunity to share our work with a room full of innovative and like-minded researchers and professionals, whose enthusiasm was truly inspiring! Connecting with so many brilliant minds and exchanging ideas has left me feeling more motivated than ever. A huge thank you to the organizers Boston Valley Terra Cotta, John Krouse, Andrew Pries, Omar Khan, Mic Patterson PhD, University at Buffalo for hosting us, everyone behind the scenes and all those who attended. Your engagement and feedback were invaluable, and I’m looking forward to continuing these conversations and collaborations. Here’s to more opportunities to explore ideas, learn and engineer our way out of #climatechange! #facadedesign #water #bioreceptivematerials #ceramics

I had the pleasure of attending ACAW for the second time this year in Buffalo, NY, and what an amazing experience it was. Unlike previous years, we proposed attending the workshop with a trans-Atlantic Arup team comprised of architectural designers, façade engineers, and material experts from London, Los Angeles, and Toronto.   Our team successfully built a prototype of a revolutionary terracotta wall system that eliminates the need for miles of secondary steel or aluminum, saving thousands of kilograms of CO2 equivalent while also greatly simplifying the installation and disassembly of the building envelope. Our design incorporated FOAMGLAS, graciously donated by Owens Corning, as both a thermal and structural component in our wall assembly.   This process began in early January, with fabrication drawings due in April. During this period, our team iterated through many versions of our design, explored different forming methods for the terracotta components, and experimented with surface texturing and glaze selection. It all culminated last week, when our team, with the help of students from Carnegie Mellon University and the University at Buffalo, used every available minute to construct our prototype with both finished exterior and interior surfaces. This time was also enriched with engaging lectures from the academic teams and a review of the historical architecture in Buffalo, NY.   Working with terracotta in my professional career has provided me with a delightful full-circle moment, allowing me to integrate my years of expertise as a studio ceramicist into my façade engineering practice. Special thanks to University at Buffalo and Boston Valley Terra Cotta, specifically John Krouse, Andrew Pries, and Andy Brayman, for facilitating such a great event. It wouldn’t have been possible without Omar Khan and Mic Patterson PhD, overseeing it all.   To our assembly team, it would not have been realized without you all: Alexis Harrison, Cristina G., Eveline Lam, Edward Tricklebank, Leigh Stone, Safayath Rafat, Shreeja Hari, and Bina Guo. #acaw #arup #architecturalceramics

UNStudio Austin team, in partnership with Walter P Moore’s New York City Office, has designed a terracotta prototype that reduces urban heat island effect and the carbon footprints of buildings. This prototype, developed for the Architectural Ceramic Assemblies Workshop with Boston Valley Terra Cotta in Buffalo, New York, innovatively uses terracotta and glaze to passively cool facades. The design manipulates an extruded terracotta façade fin, 'the twist,' to enhance shading potential, while the experimental glaze aims to maximize solar reflectance and improve air quality through the photocatalytic property of titanium dioxide. #DesignInnovation #Ceramics #Materiality #CarbonFootprint #UrbanHeatIsland #ExperimentalDesign #ACAW #TerraCotta

Architectural Ceramic Assemblies Workshop (ACAW) 2024! What an incredible journey it's been! This year, I had the privilege of participating in ACAW in Buffalo, NY—a truly enriching experience filled with challenges and learning opportunities. Working alongside brilliant minds from various regions and backgrounds was an absolute pleasure. Our multidisciplinary team brought together facade engineers from knippershelbig, BEHNISCH ARCHITEKTEN, Transsolar KlimaEngineering and TriPyramid Structures. Our focus was on exploring the untapped potential of terracotta as a facade cladding material in confronting one of the most critical climate challenges: the urban heat island effect. Together, we successfully developed a facade prototype that leverages terracotta's evaporative cooling properties to enhance thermal comfort in public spaces. Our goal was to push the boundaries of terracotta as a building material, showcasing its versatility and adaptability in addressing current sustainability needs by reducing both #Emobodied and #Operational carbon footprints and increasing facades #Circularity. We optimized the facade structure by minimizing the use of aluminum, incorporating lightweight stainless-steel tension cables with 60% recycled content, and designing a facade with 100% disassembly potential—no glue, no waste, just materials that can be #reused or #recycled. We also prioritized reducing the content of virgin materials, using terracotta tiles with 30% recycled content and aluminum with 80% recycled content. Additionally, we focused on future #Recyclability by limiting the amount of glazing on terracotta and avoiding the use of mortar. The results were impressive! The terracotta tiles demonstrated remarkable efficiency in evaporative cooling, reducing surface temperatures by 11°C after simulating a 10-minute rain event. Even 2 hours and 40 minutes after the rain, the tiles remained cool, with temperatures 9°C lower than the surrounding air and surfaces. This workshop was truly extraordinary. It started with a fascinating visit to the Boston Valley Terra Cotta facilities, where we learned about the production process and experimented with different forming methods, surface textures, and glazing types. We also engaged in insightful discussions with students, academics, and industry professionals who shared impressive research on terracotta. Collaborating with experts throughout this process was an invaluable experience, allowing me to seamlessly integrate new insights into my facade engineering practice. huge thank you to John Krouse and Boston Valley Terra Cotta for sponsoring this successful event, the University at Buffalo for providing the resources to make it happen, Carnegie Mellon University's School of Architecture for facilitating the workshop, and, of course, Mic Patterson PhD for your unwavering motivation and guidance throughout this journey! and last but not least knippershelbig for their complete support.

Architectural Ceramic Assemblies Workshop (ACAW) 2024 is officially a wrap! This year, facade engineers from Thornton Tomasetti along with Touzet Studio attempted to test the relevance of simplicity in light of ever-evolving ferocity of hurricanes in Southern Florida. The objective was to develop a terracotta screen system that could reduce water run-off by diverting rainwater to a detention system, like a landscaped planter bed. The design tested this idea using one curved terracotta extrusion and variable orientation to promote controlled diversion of water. Affordability, reduction in embodied carbon, and prioritizing terracotta in system design became the guiding principles. The final design sought efficient methods of terracotta production, minimizing unique terracotta profiles, reduced sub-framing, and minimal connection details, while always planning for high-speed wind events and potential eventual breakage. Needless to say, natural elegance of glazed terracotta was as surprising as always and the prototype was big step forward. However, there remains more work that needs to be done before the screen can be seen on a real building. Looking forward to what comes next! It was such a pleasure to collaborate with Touzet Studio. Thank you! Thank you Boston Valley Terra Cotta for sponsoring yet another successful event, University at Buffalo, School of Architecture and Planning, for allowing the professional and academic teams to play with the prototypes in your space, Carnegie Mellon University, School of Architecture, for facilitating the event, and Mic Patterson for your guidance through the design and prototyping process. Team: Jacqueline Gonzalez Touzet, AIA LEED ap (Touzet Studio) Carlos Prio-Touzet (Touzet Studio) Jose Vila Sene (Touzet Studio) Ivana Ball (Touzet Studio) Gabriella Sampaio (Thornton Tomasetti) Vishwadeep Deo (Thornton Tomasetti) #ACAW #BostonValleyTerracotta #TouzetStudio #ThorntonTomasetti #UniversityofBuffalo #CarnegieMellonUniversity #FacadeTectonics #TerracottaFacade #Facade #Prototype #Terracotta