Building skins and other coverings can often make or break the overall aesthetics of the architecture, but GKDMetalFabrics strives to go beyond beautifying the envelope. For them, it’s also about making it green. When the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo landed in Los Angeles last month, the manufacturer called attention to two of its leading building applications, Mediamesh® and Sunshading, both of which boast a number of innovative products.
American Airlines Arena
Composed of stainless steel wire mesh interwoven with LED lights, Mediamesh can transform any building into a dynamic, vivid communication experience, as demonstrated by the home of one celebrated professional basketball team. When the Miami HEAT Group decided to create a marquee on the exterior of its American Airlines Arena, the franchise wanted something that would draw attention to the arena itself and also transform Downtown Miami. Made from 3,400 square feet of a high-grade architectural woven stainless steel mesh fabric with interwoven LED profiles, the final Miami Mediamesh screen, patented by GKD, provides visitors with unobstructed viewing from the interior and visually engaging digital media content on the exterior.
Situated on Biscayne Boulevard overlooking Biscayne Bay, the arena plays host to more than 1.3 million guests annually — for concerts in addition to sporting events. Committed to providing visitors a dynamic and exciting entertainment experience, the HEAT Group commissioned a first-of-its-kind, large-scale LED mesh media facade to be installed on the arena. Standing three stories tall (42 feet high by 80 feet wide), Miami’s Mediamesh facade is four times the size of an average billboard.
American Airlines Arena
“Because of the size of the facade and the curvature of the arena, installing the Mediamesh proved to be a challenge,” says Leon Shockley, director of field operations for GKD-USA. “We broke the façade into eight panels and angled each panel within the brackets to smooth the curvature and eliminate the appearance of vertical lines. One benefit of the Mediamesh is its translucent appearance, so maintaining that transparency was critical. The result was a clear media output.”
Also beneficial for this particular project was the Mediamesh’s resistance to weathering and temperature, which helps prolong its life. Because temperatures in Miami can reach up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, it was critical that the Mediamesh be able to perform regardless of weather conditions. The Miami Mediamesh can also resist hurricane force winds up to 146 miles per hour.
American Airlines Arena
Currently the largest digital LED media display in the southeast, this Mediamesh marquee runs from 6 in the morning to 11 at night, showing concert and game footage, advertising messages from sponsors as well as Twitter and email messages from the public.
Mediamesh is easily installed over a building’s existing surface, and it’s ideal for large-scale applications: covering four times the surface area of traditional billboards yet using as much as 80 percent less electricity. Offering up to 60 percent transparency, Mediamesh allows natural daylighting and ventilation to reach a building’s surface and features the fundamental qualities of woven metal — from durability to flexibility — with unprecedented artistic and communicative capabilities.
American Airlines Arena
Solar management is an absolute necessity for many building owners looking to provide occupant comfort while also reducing energy use, and GKD has a metal fabric solution up to this challenge, as well. Its Sunshading application offers a dazzling design element, to boot.
Turkish Contractors Association
The Turkish Contractors Association, a major association of the country’s construction industry, called for a solar managed façade but also desired transparency for its headquarters in Ankara. To meet the client’s needs, AVCI Architects selected three different thicknesses from the Omega product line and stretched them tightly over the building’s glazed façade, varying thickness based on solar intensity typically experienced at each wall. The resulting envelope assists in climate control for this LEED Platinum–certified building, but on an aesthetic level, creates a dramatic, luminous lantern effect at night.
Turkish Contractors Association
At the Samsung American headquarters in San Jose, California, NBBJ sought a solution that would provide effective shading, daylighting and necessary ventilation for the campus’s parking garage. However, the firm also used this as an opportunity to beautify a structure that would otherwise be an ordinary, utilitarian volume. GKD’s Omega 1520 metal mesh allowed the project team to achieve all of these goals. NBBJ specified 36,000 square feet of the product and, taking cues from the Samsung brand, had it screen printed with a graphic of a giant electronics circuit board. The mesh was then installed as 70 individual panels mounted onto the façade via structural steel components.
Samsung American headquarters parking garage; photography by Rien van Rijthoven
In addition to earning LEED Energy and Atmosphere points by reducing air conditioning and lighting electrical loads, GKD’s Sunshading solutions may also earn Materials and Resources points (as they’re made from recycled material and are recyclable) and Sustainable Sites points when used for overhead shades to reduce the heat island effect.