As the Curtain Falls

Abstract

For the last century, architects have embraced the efficiencies of the curtain wall. As a technological solution that mediates between our interior desires and the realities of the outside world, these envelope systems have been liberally applied to buildings across the globe. Regardless of longitude and latitude, minimal vitreous enclosures have grown to represent progress and modernisation - the triumph of capitalist logic over all else.

Today, however, as concerns surrounding climate change are pulled to the forefront of contemporary culture, the myopic tendencies with which these enclosures were designed is starting to become apparent. With use-lives rarely exceeding 50 years, many curtain walls are now struggling to keep pace with contemporary change, not only falling short of evermore stringent performance standards, but also rapidly evolving cultural demands. With a vast number of these envelopes set to fail in the not-so-distant future, it is now simply a matter of time until the world’s first generation of crystalline skylines are either erased or replaced.

When considering the sheer quantity of curtain walls that have been assembled over the last fifty years, in urban canters as diverse as New York and New Delhi, the true magnitude of this issue starts to become apparent. As a generation of young architects, we are set to inherit an inventory of large buildings possessing perfectly sound structures, but fundamentally flawed envelopes. Concurrently sitting in the midst of what has come to be known as a “climate crisis”, it seems an appropriate time to question our current paradigm of enclosure design. Do we really need more short-term solutions, or a fundamental shift in the way we perceive and produce the outer inches of our architecture?