Technology over technique produces emotionless design.
~ Daniel Mall

BUILDING MATERIAL / SYSTEM / PRODUCT TECHNOLOGY

MILLS STUDIO’S STATEMENT 

A straightforward definition of technology is methods, systems, and devices which are the result of scientific knowledge being used for practical purposes. Every material, product, and building system that make up the DTS Project House is a technology in that each reflects the application of scientific knowledge to a practical aim. The DTS Project House incorporates and showcases both proven and experimental material and building system technologies; utilizes material and product technologies that employ unique fabrication and installation techniques; and generates and monitors data to evaluate and judge building systems and product technologies.     

Building materials and systems, products, and devices were all evaluated for their contribution to the architectural intent, contribution to sustainability, and contribution to the Owner’s use of the building. They were also evaluated for how each uses technology to make these contributions and how each promotes or might promote technological advances. Materials, building systems, and products were also evaluated for how their inclusion and combinations express the intended proper relationship between the natural and manmade worlds – between nature and technology. Technologies and innovations embodied in the DTS Project House’s materials, building systems, products and devices make the DTS Project House particular to its owners, site, and cultural context.

Building Materials

Technology affects every material in the DTS Project House from either how the material is extracted or manufactured to its composition to how it is fabricated to how it is delivered and installed to how it is maintained and ages. Technology is used in one way or another to create and or express the material properties and characteristics desired to achieve the architectural intention. The DTS Project House does not concentrate on experimental materials, but installs  chiefly the elemental materials of earth, concrete, steel, glass, wood, and stone in innovative ways creating experimental aesthetics that technology makes possible and makes responsible.        

The DTS Project House innovates by using technology to make ancient materials modern, enhance the potentials of elemental raw materials, expand the functions and purposes materials serve, modify perceived material properties through fabrication and installation, and give materials from commercial and industrial circumstances a residential context. Dirt is turned into rammed earth and stone is combined with wire cages; formwork is sealed with eco-friendly releasing agents and concrete is delivered in compressed natural gas powered trucks; steel structures the open plan; stainless steel is shaped into a swimming pool and corten steel ages without maintenance; motorized doors regulate natural ventilation and switched glass becomes a projection screen; PVC membranes are stretched into ceilings and ink jet printers pattern porcelain; engineered wood serves as structure and finish and wood is sculpted into finish panels with CNC machines.

Building Systems

Technology enhances the sustainability and performance of individual building components, expands execution capabilities, and combines components into complex systems. The DTS Project House is designed and constructed using technologically state-of-the-art building components and systems and uses technology to combine individual components into integrated systems. The ultimate intention is to merge art and technology so that the DTS Project House performs as a unified aesthetic and mechanical system.

Technological attributes determine the type of building components and systems used, how and to what extent they are used. For instance, exterior glazing systems are used extensively and responsibly because of the high energy efficiency of the glass and frame assembly and the recycled content. The exterior glazing is combined with automated motorization and insect screens providing natural ventilation, and automated shading provides sun protection and filtered daylight. The exterior glazing is additionally energy responsible and contributes to the inhabitant’s well-being because it greatly reduces reliance on artificial mechanical and lighting systems.    

Thus, the specified vendor’s products meet the stringent technological requirements required of an individual component and have the features necessary to serve in a larger, integrated building system. But equally important to a product’s specification is how its technology positively affects the individual component’s and larger building system’s aesthetic in the finished construction. For instance, the design and engineering of the SkyFrame exterior sliding doors meet all of the critical energy requirements, but also provide minimal vertical and no horizontal interruptions to sight lines, conceal elegantly built-in motors, and completely conceals insect screens when not deployed. Technology and art are aligned.  Individual components and building systems must use technology to meet the DTS Project House’s intentions for design, technology, and sustainability.         

Building Products / Devices

The DTS Project House employs the most advanced products and devices to address specific design and operational goals. Since many products and devices act as an intermediary between the building and its users, technology is often used to facilitate the human bodies interaction with the product or device. Technology shapes our physical and mental or sensory interactions with devices and products. Some devices use technology geared toward exploiting human nature as it is and some devices use technology to try and alter human habits.

There is hardly an area of human inquiry and knowledge that technology does not utilize in the design, manufacture, and implementation of the various products and devices that make the DTS Project House perform. Scientific knowledge in the fields of electrical engineering to biology to material sciences to graphic design to psychology to software engineering to structural engineering to computer programming to environmental science to manufacturing to optics to many more disciplines is evident in the design and performance of the many products and devices that make up the DTS Project House.  

Products and devices installed in the DTS Project House employing advanced technology range from spring-loaded exercise floors to ergonomic chairs and sofa backrests to touch sensitive light switches to photovoltaic roof tiles to door call boxes to LED light fixtures.  All of these products and devices express and model an elegance in design, performance, and aesthetics that technological innovation makes possible.          

Research

Research was conducted to expose the DTS Project House design team to new and developing technologies, document the most advanced of existing technologies, and discover areas where our design needs could affect technological development and innovation. The design team conducted various types of research from attending trade shows, reviewing public web sites and product data, visits to vendor’s showrooms, discussions with vendor’s design teams, consulting with experts, inspecting actual installations, and discussions with end users in order to thoroughly document and evaluate the available and possible options.   

Case Studies

Each material, building system, product, and device specified for the DTS Project House first went through a rigorous research and evaluation process. The exterior glazing system, photovoltaic system, and rock filled gabions serve as case studies showing the process used to go from design intention to specification. These three case studies exemplify the breadth of the process from developing evaluation criteria based upon design intentions and sustainability goals to conducting various types of research documenting what was available and possible to evaluation of multiple potential implementations for their alignment with design intentions, individual characteristics and features, potential for integration into larger systems, cost, aesthetics, and technological innovation.    

Wherever technology reaches its real fulfillment, it transcends into architecture. ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe