The Machine Clads Itself
New enclosure technologies developed by John Neary as part of the 2021 ACAW Workshop promise methods to make curtain walls out of structural ceramic, held in compression by steel tension rods. This project adapts and modifies the ACAW prototype to clad the Exhibition Wall.
Looking to late 19th-century ceramic fireproofing techniques, this cladding system integrates additional, yet essential, functions of fireproofing, interior finishing, vessel display, and mechanical chases. To the west, the facade acts as a public exhibition — a wall that is art. To the east, the same system is adapted to form a double-skin enclosure, forming internal voids to carry and distribute heat from the kilns. To the interior, its flexible forms bend to create shelving for display in the galleries.
By holding the ceramic members in compression through tensioned steel rods, selective loosening allows for individual pieces to be removed and replaced as needed. By having four rods in each cluster, the system incorporates redundancy, becoming resilient against the failure of any individual rod.
Pedagogically, this facade system serves to teach the ComArt students about the applications of the ceramic arts beyond vessels and figures. The facade is not an industrially-produced monolith, but a form produced and changed by the students and faculty. Formed from simple clay extrusions, classes would take part in the initial design, forming, and glazing of these members, and as they are damaged or wear out, students would be the ones to replace them.
MECHANICAL SYSTEMS: This project utilizes a series of both passive and active systems to heat, cool, and ventilate its spaces in accordance with its ideas of redundancy and multi-layered systems. While the primary heating comes from the university-operated steam plant, the kilns and 100-foot-deep vertical geothermal piles combine to form alternative, sustainable heat sources. In the summer, the same heat produced by the kilns and stored in the double-skin East facade is used to drive stack-effect ventilation.
The machine clads itself.
