views - concepts - plan - models - construction - c o n t e n t s


ALCOA CORPORATE CENTER, Pittsburgh USA 1994 - 1998.



"checker skin-wrap" -- or, see-through curtain-plates ***; glass-wallpaper





Like the serpentine block of office loft it wraps, the curtainwall is a "non-hierarchical" skin, layered from front-to-back according to utility. Without any vertical/stack-up aesthetic/up-down hierarchy being imposed, each layer of the wall assembly is free to acquire its required sizes and components to perform its respective functions: to veil, to wrap, to filter, and to reveal.

Each surface layer is absolutely uniform in color and material from top to bottom. There is no base-middle-top, floor-window-ceiling-spandrel articulation. In fact, every effort is made to obscure them -- hence the use of the two scales of checkerboard pattern and the "suspended" external suncreen. All expression or articulation of the skin-wall, including its coloration, is accomplished only as a result of the transparency of the front-to-back juxtaposition of the layers.

©1996, 1997 Agus Rusli / Rusli Associates



description continued :



in-progress construction photos








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river-curtain/ south elevation . . .

river view of building; curving filigree skin wall . . .

free floors/ outer infrastructure . . .

atrium, core-building . . .

floor plan, building section . . .

west elevation, sunscreen assembly . . .

in-progress construction photos . . .

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