With daily technological and other advances in building materials and design, it is puzzling that the nation’s 100,000-plus licensed architects
(according to the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards) and 25,000 student architects (according to the National Architectural Accrediting Board) have little direct dialogue with the aluminum extrusion industry.
A close relationship doesn’t exist today due to the indirect nature of the building process. General contractors and intermediaries work to secure the extruded aluminum material based on an already established design. Even in architectural schools, few professors or curricula spend much time on the use and flexibility that aluminum extrusions deliver, although under the material science umbrella, students learn about concrete and steel in depth.
This scarcity of collaboration is surprising. For a building owner, architect and extruder working together from the outset of a project generates several advantages. It improves the project’s timeline and costs because the extruder can validate the feasibility of the planned design at its concept stage instead of waiting until the design has been locked down. Simply because an architect can draw a concept doesn’t mean it can be easily achieved.
So why don’t they mingle? Typically, the food chain goes from building owner who hires the architect to design a project, to general contractor that takes the architect’s design and sends it to several makers of curtainwall systems for bids for example. Systems manufacturers then go to extruders and ask if they can make the project’s extrusions. The process then returns to the general contractor for final decisions.
This collaborative absence is underway in both the architectural and building materials arenas. Simply consider these strong trends as reasons to connect architects with extruders:
1. Inventive technological and design advances that play to aluminum extrusions’ strengths. Gone are the days when curtainwall applications and systems were referred to as “stick” systems. Today, the industry can generate a design aesthetic and visual effect that other building materials cannot achieve, whether for a project’s exterior or interior, or involving a fresh trend in finishing, or the provocative fragmentation, pixilation and randomness of architecture design.
In addition, unitized aluminum curtainwall systems mean that a whole network of materials can be assembled in a shop environment, then each module is fit together like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle on-site. The cost savings: By some estimates, 15 to 35 percent in labor expenses since the contractor doesn’t need to hire an $80- to $90-an-hour laborer in the field for the installation.
2. Advanced materials and engineering practices. Explore using structural aluminum including extrusions instead of steel to convey lightweight, floating design visions while maximizing material strength. Architects and engineers increasingly are using systems constructed with extruded aluminum components bolted together. This makes it easy to disassemble and recycle a building, and aluminum can be recycled forever into new uses and retain its integrity and strength. From a cost standpoint, lightweight aluminum components generally weigh 35 to 80 percent less than steel yet deliver equal strength.
3. Greenbuild. This emerging and rapidly expanding movement demonstrates how architecture and pioneering applications of aluminum extrusions and other building materials can deliver an enduring and sustainable environment. These are innovations and trends that architects and aspiring architects should be studying and taking note of for the future of the industry.
Aluminum extrusions fit well into this sustainable environment because they often comprise recycled content and are recyclable. They can be used in their natural appearance or finished with energy-saving and reflective coatings. The extrusions can be bent and formed in countless ways to deliver the architectural features the project desires.
One recent example of building green is the PNC Tower in Pittsburgh, a certified LEED Platinum building, which utilized aluminum extrusions in its double-skinned façade curtainwall. The use of aluminum extrusions in commercial buildings, such as the PNC Tower, can contribute to LEED points and certifications in areas of Energy Efficiency and Selection or Sustainable Materials.
So what’s the answer to bringing architects and industry together? Here are a few suggestions:
- Elevate extrusions’ stature. Drop its commodity label since each building project today involves custom applications.
- Modernize architecture schools’ curricula and convince professors to embrace inventive uses for non-steel materials. Schools should add a course on aluminum and extrusions, especially if the industry and its members help underwrite it.
- Find more opportunities at aluminum and extrusion trade group meetings for student architects to participate. An opportunity was missed at the weeklong International Aluminum Extrusion Technology Seminar in May 2016 in Chicago. Few, if any, of its 125-plus technical seminars and workshops sought participation by student architects.
In short, the building and construction industry should awaken to the ongoing transformation of building design sparked by technology and engineering advances. Aluminum extrusions are an invaluable part of this renaissance.
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Scott Condreay, an aluminum extrusion industry professional for 30-plus years, is the architectural engineering manager at Sapa Extrusions’ North American Technical Center, Portland, Ore. For more information, visit www.sapagroup.com/na/profiles.