Firms develop ceramic prototypes for Boston Valley Terra Cotta’s 2023 ACAW Workshop

SOURCE: The Architect’s Newspaper
AUTHOR: Trevor Schillaci
DATE: 09.06.23

Included in the coverage of the 2023 ACAWorkshop is an article by The Architect’s Newspaper, reported on by program assistant Trevor Shillaci. Media attention such as this on ACAW is invaluable, as it increases awareness of the annual event within the architectural and engineering fields. The ultimate goal of holding the workshop is to encourage collaboration within the industry, and to help professionals develop a greater understanding of using terra cotta for high performance façade design.

Below are excerpts from the article featuring a few of the team prototype contributions:

Pickard Chilton + Magnusson Klemencic Associates

This team deviated from the rest, developing a prototype for a terra cotta staircase instead of a facade system. The staircase demonstrated that terra cotta is also viable as a structural material. After studying several different configurations, the team settled on a system where the stair treads rest on a single structural stringer. The anatomical properties of a whale spine served as an inspiration for the design of the staircase.

ACAW 2023 prototype by Team Pickard Chilton. ©Dan Cappellazzo

Selldorf Architects + Socotec

The team from Selldorf drew upon their work from previous projects in collaboration with Boston Valley Terra Cotta. In creating their facade prototype, the team worked to reduce the overall weight of the ram-pressed tiles, ultimately achieving a nearly 60 percent reduction. The final product, which features an undulating wave pattern, was the result of extensive modeling to investigate various curvatures expressed as sine waves. Alternations of convex and concave curvatures were the result. The pigment utilized in the glaze was sourced from industrial metals, primarily iron oxides, found in slag-waste from an industrial site.

ACAW 2023 prototype by Team Selldorf Architects. ©Dan Cappellazzo

Eric Parry Architects + FMDC Ltd.

Designers from Eric Parry Architects shared the firm’s use of terra cotta for an ongoing project involving Fishmongers’ Hall on the river Thames in London. While the designers initially intended to use stone masonry for the project, it was ultimately too heavy for use. Complying with this year’s biophilic theme, different species of plant, as well as lichen and moss, were tested on a prototype, which will inform the design of the London project. When glazing the terra cotta, the team experimented with a speckled pattern which was counted and modeled to make sure that the specks of color were applied “uniformly” to the structure.

Read the full article here.

The Architectural Ceramic Assemblies Workshop Returns to Probe the Future of Terra Cotta

SOURCE: Architectural Record
AUTHOR: Matthew Marani
DATE: 08.24.23

The 2023 ACAWorkshop took place in Buffalo, NY last month from August 14-17th. Participants and attendees gathered in the Marriott at LECOM Harborcenter for the public Symposium event on Thursday, where each team presented the results of their months-long prototype development. The day was rounded out with a closing keynote speech by Orel Samson, Senior Manager at Allied Properties REIT.

In attendance during ACAW week was Matthew Marani, editor for Architectural Record. Below are excerpted passages from Marani’s article recounting his experience.

The professional teams present at this year’s ACAW were, for the most part, composed of paired-up architects and engineers, and featured familiar faces and new attendees. Notably, the workshop featured six academic teams, a significant expansion from years past, which, according to Carnegie Melon University Head of Architecture and workshop organizer Omar Khan, is a result of growing interest in ceramics within architectural programs, especially in the area of 3D printing.[…] “Maintaining six academic programs every year would be ideal as their work brings a fresh perspective that is a bit more experimental and also provides us with an opportunity to support emerging pedagogies at these institutions,” noted Khan.

The prototypes were conceptually developed in the months leading up to the workshop and featured exciting applications of the material. For example, New Haven, Connecticut–based Pickard Chilton and Seattle’s Magnusson Klemencic Associates drew upon a series of precedents, such as the work of Rafael Guastavino, to develop a terra cotta stairwell supported by a post-tensioned spine, that, in its glazing and finish, resembles something of a mix between a scrimshaw whalebone and cellular structure.

Lila Sferlazza, associate at Pickard Chilton, led the team with Magnusson Klemencic Associates to create a feature stair for their assembly. ©Dan Cappellazzo

Or take the rainscreen designed by Selldorf Architects and façade consultant Socotec, that, using parabolic strengthening and other measures, saw an approximately 60 percent reduction in typical panel weight. The prototype also experimented with the use of industrial waste such as slag as a recycled material for both terra cotta and glazing.

ZGF Architects’ New York office, in collaboration with LERA Consulting Structural Engineers, worked on a modular system, suitable for rainscreen or sunshade use, or even as a decorative display, of glazed and ribbed uniform terra cotta units mounted on a rod system that is configurable at a full 360 degrees.

Los Angeles-based CO Architects held an internal design competition for their prototype, and ultimately looked towards origami’s multifaceted folds as inspiration. The result is a system of glazed and plain surfaces suspended over vertically oriented tension rods.

HGA worked with Denver-based facade engineering firm Studio NYL to design a rainscreen system of terra cotta planks, that, in their finish, resemble something of a high-design bush-hammered façade.

Stan Su returned to ACAW for a third time to lead the RIOS team’s modular wall concept. ©Dan Cappellazzo

Henning Larsen, Thornton Tomasetti, and Innovation Glass teamed up to explore the use of moss on a unitized terra cotta curtain wall system. ©Dan Cappellazzo

The prompt for this year’s workshop was biophilic design, and several participating firms incorporated plantings within their prototypes. L.A.-based RIOS, with the support of engineer ARUP, unveiled a hybrid block-and-rainscreen system that can be fitted with a series of planter trays.

The New York office of Danish architecture firm Henning Larsen, in a pairing with engineer Thornton Tomasetti and façade fabricator Innovation Glass, explored a crackle-glazed sunscreen with alluvial grooves capable of supporting moss growth.

And Eric Parry Architects, with collaborating façade engineer FMDC, developed a fish scale-like rain screen of extruded terra cotta finials, as well as high-gloss glazed soffit panels, for an ongoing project in London’s Salisbury Square.

Let’s see what the future has in store for this industrious corner of New York.

Orel Samson of Allied Properties REIT and Seldorf Architects’ Anne Lewison discuss ACAW 2023 teams assemblies on display. ©Dan Cappellazzo