Air-curtain walls and roofs - 'dynamic' structures

Abstract

In the historical development of building structures, significant advances in building technology have typically been accompanied by a reduction in the bulk of structural elements. The extrapolation of this trend to its ultimate conclusion would result in enclosures with no structure at all. In our study here of air-curtain walls and roofs, we explore what we consider to be possible next steps in this process, steps towards the use of jet sheets of air as a total structural envelope. We call these new containers ‘ dynamic ’ structures since they are characterized by the expenditure of energy rather than by the utilization of mass as in conventional static structures, and because they can have variable form and ‘strength’.