Agenda
Symposium
Times in PST
8:00 – 9:30 AM
9:30 – 9:40 AM
9:40 – 9:45 AM
9:45 – 10:30 AM
This session explores how glass and wood can transcend their traditional roles to create environments of warmth, transparency, and healing. Through the Hana Bank Headquarters in Seoul and the Montage Health Ohana Campus in Monterey, we will examine how materiality shapes human experience—whether uniting a corporate community through daylight and nature, or fostering resilience and connection in a pediatric behavioral health setting. Both projects demonstrate how design can dissolve the barriers between people, place, and well-being, offering new possibilities for restorative and inclusive architecture.
Moderated by: Vivian Ngo
10:30 – 11:00 AM
In this panel, attendees will explore cutting-edge building envelope products and services that are revolutionizing the AEC industry. These innovations enhance energy efficiency, durability, and sustainability while pushing the boundaries of design and performance. Experts will discuss how advancements in materials, fabrication techniques, and digital tools are enabling architects, engineers, and contractors to work smarter, build better, and achieve their design visions with greater precision. These panelists will share their manufacturing expertise on technologies that contribute to meeting evolving building codes, improving occupant comfort, and reducing environmental impact, ultimately shaping the future of high-performance building envelopes.
Moderated by: XiaoXiao Bao
11:00 – 11:30 AM
11:30 – 12:00 PM
Richard Kennedy Architects is known for a thoughtful, technically graceful, site-responsive approach that balances modernity with regional, climate responsive identity. For Jim Richard, architecture is about creating spaces that enhance human experience while context and climate of a place. This often translates into thoughtful material choices that reflect the regional vernacular in harmony with the landscape. Jim will be presenting his thoughts on facade design highlighting the under construction Palm Springs Library along with other of his firms work.
Moderated by: Jack Murphy
12:00 – 12:30 PM
Amir Mikhael (BIG) and Alex Rosenthal (Heintges) will be sharing the recently-completed Robert Day Sciences Center stands as the inaugural landmark in a BIG-designed masterplan for the Claremont McKenna College campus. The four-story, 135,000 square foot integrated sciences center is composed of a series of stacked and rotated truss volumes, resulting in a dynamic sequence of laboratories, terraces, classrooms, communal, and circulatory spaces. The board-formed GFRC clad unitized curtain wall panels featured on the exterior were designed to both celebrate its integral supporting structures as well as blur boundaries with the Douglas-fir clad truss members inside. This knowledge sharing presentation will highlight the technical challenges in its realization as well as to celebrate a successful collaboration amongst a largely Southern California based ownership, design, and contracting team.
Moderated by: Michael Young
12:30 – 12:45 PM
12:30 – 1:30 PM
1:30 – 1:45 PM
2:00-3:00 PM
Winka Dubbeldam is a renowned Dutch-American architect, designer, and academic. She is the founder and partner of Archi-Tectonics, an architecture firm known for its cutting-edge, award-winning designs that integrate smart building systems with a focus on sustainability and innovation.
Human activity has impacted the environment to such an extent that many now consider the Anthropocene as a distinct geological epoch, marked by observable environmental changes.
Recent research on plant intelligence has shown that plants possess an innate ability to react to environmental stresses, adapt, and mutate. Not only can they survive environmental catastrophes, but they also enhance their phytoremediation capabilities while evolving into new forms of beauty.
Some biologists refer to these adaptive organisms as “Hopeful Monsters”—organisms with significant mutations that can potentially establish new evolutionary lineages more resilient to future challenges. As we face the next wave of the Anthropocene, where climate change and environmental extremes threaten our existence, architecture must learn from plant intelligence. It needs to transform, becoming adaptive, resilient, and capable of having a positive impact on its environment.
Rather than simply adding vegetation to otherwise static structures, buildings themselves should incorporate nature’s intelligence, fostering symbiotic relationships with the environment and evolving into what can be described as ‘Synthetic Natures.’
Moderated by: Jack Murphy
3:00 – 3:45 PM
In this session, attendees will learn about the advanced building envelope technologies transforming the AEC industry. These advancements allow designers, engineers, and contractors to embrace renewable energy and sustainable building solutions.
Moderated by: Yake Wang
3:45-4:15 PM
4:15 – 5:10 PM
Join engineering, construction, owners, and material leaders as they discuss the international movement toward circularity in construction and design for the deconstruction and reuse of building materials through pilot projects of multiple scales. This wide ranging discussion will discuss the successes and challenges facing the AEC industries movement toward a more sustainable supply chain.
Moderated by: Stacey Hooper
5:10 – 5:15 PM
5:15 – 7:15 PM
Workshops
Times in PST
Workshop participants will engage with the industry’s leading design professionals in an intimate, classroom-style setting. Select between three thematic tracks including: sustainability, detailing, and technology. Choose the Tracks and Sessions that most interest you and dive-deep into project typologies, technologies, and techniques to grow your knowledge and practice. A light breakfast, lunch, snacks and drinks provided throughout the day.
9:30 – 10:00 AM
TRACK A
Energy, Sustainability, and Resiliency
Combined with growing expectations for high performance, building enclosure design is now required to satisfy a large number of performance parameters that were not given a great deal of consideration in the past. Building enclosures were always expected to be durable and address issues like energy efficiency, daylighting, indoor air quality, fire safety, thermal comfort, and carbon footprint, but now with aggressive changes in code and the climate crisis the urgency to decarbonize our building envelopes and radically reduce both embodied carbon and operational carbon is every designers responsibility.
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
12:30 – 2:30 PM
2:45 – 4:45 PM
Habitat Horticulture and RIOS will discuss the benefits of living wall facades in urban environments using 11755 Wilshire Blvd. project as a case study. We will discuss how the living wall fits in with the overall design intent and the various challenges and factors integrating it into the facade.
Benefits to Covered
- Boost Biodiversity
- Facade Temperature Reduction
- Building Energy Load Reduction
- Deter Graffiti
- Trap Particulate Matter from the Air
- Improve Walkability
- Increase Mental Well Being
TRACK B
In the Details
Clients demand attractive and high-performing buildings and as designers, you need to zoom in on fundamental design principles and thoughtful detailing to achieve performance goals. This track will feature the opportunity to detail and collaborate on high-design, and high performance facades.
10:00 – 12:00 PM
Across buildings that grace our skylines, there exists a trio of stalwart elements — glass, steel and terra cotta — that form the backbone of so many facades across the globe. These foundational materials not only shape the physical landscape but also define the very essence of architectural identity and innovation. Steel, tough and unyielding, represents resilience and grit. Glass, with its clear transparency, brings vibrancy and light to our urban landscapes. And terra cotta, a renewable material steeped in history and tradition, adds a touch of warmth and regional charm. Together, they’re like old friends, shaping our communities with strength and character. This workshop will focus on these three façade materials, dissecting the merits and use cases for each through stories of three projects in development right now in Southern California: Steel: The Rosena Ranch Fire Station embraces its harsh climatic conditions with its weathering steel rainscreen cladding. Glass: The SPC Jesus S. Duran Eastside Library uses glass to put knowledge on display and embody the essence of accessibility, highlighting the significance of making information available to all. Terra Cotta: The College of Health & Human Services building at California State University Long Beach features glazed terra cotta, embracing its regional landscape and supporting its ambitions for sustainability. Attendees will leave the workshop with a better understanding and appreciation for each material, as well as an appreciation for the design and decision-making processes that go into making façade decisions for projects of varying types, scales and geographies.
12:30 – 2:30 PM
Historic building facades are now being improved and reimagined to meet modern standards of performance and sustainability. This workshop explores the intricate process of investigating, designing, and constructing facade improvements that not only enhance building performance and integrity but also preserve historical authenticity.
2:45 – 4:45 PM
The Duarte Outpatient Center is the latest Cancer Outpatient addition to the City of Hope campus in Duarte, CA housing some 150 infusion units, clinical spaces and imaging departments.
This flagship campus is recognized for its culture of hope and peaceful, approachable patient experience in garden-like environments, as much as it is for cutting edge research and prestigious cancer expertise. The northeast campus projects, including a newly expanded Hope Drive entry, a large Park, the Northeast Parking Structure and the Duarte Outpatient Clinic, create a cohesive environment that offers a variety of experiences, maximizes access to nature and views, and sparks moments of joy and delight- placing the patient experience hand-in-hand with quality care and treating the whole patient.
The double-height, prefabricated façade system for the project was very much inspired by the surrounding context, campus-setting and adapted to the local climate while focusing on patient, caretaker and family well-being.
This workshop will dive into the details of the collaborative process between architect, contractor and trade partners to describe the composition of the various pre-fabricated panels, outline the design and performative challenges of modular façade systems and openly share best practices, lessons learned and hands-on experience from the now-completed project.
2:45-4:45 PM
In this workshop, we will cover the essential aspects of Performance Test Requirements for façade systems, providing an understanding of the rationale behind testing and optimal timing to initiate the process.
The presenters will walk you through the process of formulating performance requirements tailored to individual façade systems, selecting suitable tests for each specific façade type. Additionally, clarify the process of defining wall type specifications/dimensions and test procedures.
During the workshop, participants will engage in collaborative discussions to interpret the data from test results, facilitating its practical application in the facade design.
Key Takeaways:
- Be able to review typical tests for building envelope performance.
- Learn to identify reasons for testing facades systems.
- Understand performance requirements.
- Familiarity with testing procedure and sequence according to data desired.
- Insights from Performance Mock-up Testing results.
TRACK C
Tools and Technologies
Learn new tools, workflows, and skills that can help you manage complexity in your projects. These deep-diving case studies will provide strong foundations and more with lessons learned through real world case studies in both ground up and adaptive reuse scenarios.
10:00 AM -12:00 PM
Over the past few decades the use, quality and size of glass and glazing on high rise buildings has increased dramatically as has the use of glass products from offshore. More recently, as a result of increased industry recognition of the importance of energy efficiency, the trend is towards more energy efficient glazing systems. Common methods of improving thermal performance of Insulated Glass Units (IGUs) includes the application of high-performance coatings, use of triple glazing or warm edge spacer technology, using IGU’s in spandrel and shadow boxes, use of solar shading devices, use of structural glass, and installing solar selective films on or inside the units. While these solutions have all been effective at improving thermal performance, there have been cases where the implementation of this new technology has resulted in premature and costly failures.
- In this workshop, 20 different case studies are presented to show and explain the variety of problems that can occur with glass and glazing after installation. The case studies examine each type of glazing failure and help to explain how different investigation techniques were used to find the failure mechanisms.
- After the case studies, attendees will create a checklist that will address the most common risks summarized in the case studies and be easily incorporated in project specifications and quality assurance plans on their specific projects.
- Following the presentation, the workshop will shift to the “hands on phase” where attendees will cycle through a series of stations setup with the latest glazing and IGU testing and forensic equipment. Attendees will learn to use the equipment to check and diagnose common glass and glazing failures, and to check if the glass meets expected performance attributes.
The skills learned in this workshop will prove invaluable for Architects, Specifiers, Glazing Contractors, Manufacturers and consultants looking to manage risk and ensure that their glass and glazing meets the expected performance and durability requirements.
12:30 – 2:30 PM
This workshop will introduce form-active structural optimization strategies, focusing on those relevant to long-span structural systems, and include an in-depth design workflow. We propose to use Karamba’s large-form deformation and analysis components to provide form-finding and early conceptual design feedback. The introduction will cover mesh modeling for analysis and visualization as well as several design optimization strategies typically employed in practice.
Hardware/Software Requirements
Personal Laptop with:
- Rhino 7.0/8.0
- Grasshopper
- Karamba [ free trial provided ]
- Weaverbird
- Proving Ground’s Lunchbox
2:45 – 4:45 PM
This workshop will explore the key elements of facade design with emphasizing the importance in accommodating service and ultimate movements in seismically active areas. Participants will gain understanding of the rationale behind movement accommodation strategies, essential to design resilient facade systems.
The presenters will guide attendees through performance requirements, the selection of suitable support strategies, and the coordination necessary for integrating facade systems effectively. Additionally, we will cover the processes of defining specifications, setting tolerances, and determining testing procedures that meet seismic resilience standards.
Through collaborative discussions and hands-on exercises, participants will identify tailored solutions for specific seismic challenges, gaining practical skills to apply in project specific challenges.
Key Takeaways:
- Understanding the Impact of Seismic Movements on Building Envelopes
- Selecting Support Strategies for Seismic Resilience
- Movement Accommodation Across Different Facade Systems
- Testing and Proofing Facade Systems Against Seismic Requirements
- Integrating Movement Accommodation into Facade Design
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