Architectural Ceramic Assemblies Workshop: Bioclimatic Ceramic Assemblies I

ACAW: Bioclimatic Ceramic Assemblies I chronicles the first of a series of workshops that explore the bioclimatic potential of terracotta in contemporary architecture. A collaboration between Boston Valley Terra Cotta, the preeminent terracotta manufacturer in the United States and the School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), the workshop interrogates the structural and environmental performance of terracotta and how its form and assembly into architecture can address environmental factors like heat, cold, water, and illumination. Teams consisting of architects, façade engineers, ceramicists and artists collaboratively developed unique architectural proposals that imagined future uses of the material. These included heat exchangers as façade elements, a structured terracotta baguette pavilion, humidity mitigating walls and layered terracotta elements with different environmental qualities. The groups also discussed innovative tooling and aesthetic potentials for the material.