Most high-rise buildings are still outfitted with a hidden and expensive network of metal ducts which are run through structural cores or between structural beams in an ineffectual and often conflictual way. But architect Emergent did a great change turning buildings inside-out and designed The Huaxi Urban Center for China. The Huaxi Urban Center externalizes all its “innards” in a morphology of shifting lights racing up and down its glacial-like hull. The glass envelope begins to take on duct behavior by delaminating to create pleats where air can flow. These pleats branch and run across the building facades, linking to floor plenums on each level at several locations along the perimeter. A second layer of loose-fitting skin wraps the glass duct-skin, registering the pleats and shrouding the building. This shroud is made of perforated sheet metal. At night, the glass ducts glow from behind the shroud, creating elegant color and depth effects, reflections, and silhouettes.
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