Technology and Architecture

By: Cole Hartke

            

            Throughout the year’s architecture has been rather limited. The creativity I believe was not limited because we can draw all our hearts desires, but we are limited by what we can build. The ideas can be put to paper without a problem but when it comes to taking a drawing to real life, it hits some issues.

            Things were harder to do back in the day and not to mention very costly. For example, if someone wanted a specific steel beam to curve around something the contractor would say that you were nuts for doing that. In today’s architecture these ideas are not challenged because the technology allows for cheaper manufacturing of these types of beams.

            For many years the designer has had to change the plans of the design because it simply just was not possible to build. So the starting design would look nothing like the end result. In this day in age we don’t worry about if a building will stand up in the design. we may have an idea of the structure of the building but that doesn’t drive our design processes because we have the technology to make the designs work. What we put down on paper today matches very closely to what we build.

            Aside from the technology of the structure there are many more technological advancements in the architectural field. One in particular are the technologies behind facades. With the concern for green buildings and zero carbon footprints such a big issue today if think that the new technologies of the facades are a great step towards achieving this.

            Some different technologies in facades are photovoltaic glass and shading devices. With photovoltaic glass in most instances a person can see right through a solar panel in a way. The glass has little solar cells inside the layers creating energy while still letting light into a space. With a lot of buildings utilizing a glass façade this approach will drastically help towards a green building.

            The façade is the first layer to the elements from sun, so eliminating that exposure will save energy on the heating and cooling bills. Shading devices are utilized a lot more now in designs because of what they can do. If you think about shades they look cheap and tacky but when they can do more things such as follow this sun to maximize shade, then they carry more of a design aspect to them. They now are not pieces of a building added on after to create this efficiency they are put into place by the designer as part of the scheme. They help the building both with aesthetics and also with energy consumption.