The Architectural Envelope: an Assistant for Components Design Choices

The global envelope to day focuses on it a lot of attention from architects, progressively replacing the classical concepts of wall and roof. It is a complex component, entrusted with the delicate goal of mediating between exterior and interior space, between a space boundary and a bearing structure. Its main parts are the glass wall, a substructure resisting the loads and transmitting them to the bearing structure, and the connection of the two. The latter, in turn, comprises a fitting and a bracket. The set of relationships between these components and sub-components needs the control of many conditions of consistency. The tool presented is an Assistant performing just this task helping the designer to select in each project situation the best couple of two main envelope components: fitting and bracket. The Assistant structure lends itself to implement an intelligent commercial product catalog. It seems also fit to manage component selections strongly conditioned by consistency constrains between collaborating elements.