Between Skin and Bone: Constructing Air-Scape for Modernist Heritage

Abstract

At first glance, the curtain wall seems like the ultimate solution for facade construction. As driven by economic considerations, it is natural to compress the thickness of the facade to maximize the floor area. The thinness of the curtain wall is later known to come with problems, resulting in a singular approach to transparency and weakened thermal performance. Solutions such as added reflective or tinted layers have presented choices between being a mirrored monolith or being overexposed

This thesis takes on a modernist heritage as the site of intervention. Situated in Chicago and serving as the primary center for judicial activity, Daley Center is the epitome of International Style buildings in Chicago, which usually feature a single facade and grided structural frame. The architectural industry’s advancing requirements for skin performance deem this type of construction obsolete. However, as a landmark building among many other midcentury heritages, the exterior appearance of Daley Center is under protected status. If the exterior must stay, could the interior be transformed in a way to address the problems of enclosure?

Taking a closer look at the curtain wall, it is never a two-dimensional surface but a space with depth filled with compressed air. How do air and depth enrich the visual and environmental aspects of those modernist heritages? How does the inherent flexibility in steel frame construction allow for a new interior that introduces air-scape into the existing enclosure? How do we reimagine a non-dichromatic appearance for the modernist skin?