Author: Will Laufs

At this year’s GlassCon, Will Laufs will be presenting Extreme Glazing Load Case Studies: Hurricane and Bomb Blast. The abstract will focus on large transparent building facades with minimal support structures that are subject to numerous project-specific safety requirements that challenge the engineer working to achieve this high level of performance. Two case studies respectively frame the arguments for hurricane-impact and blast resistance glazing: Ground Zero World Trade Center Tower 3 Entrance Lobby, NYC and Norton Museum Extension, West Palm Beach, Florida.

SHELF LIFE by LeCavalier R+D, was a finalist for the 2018 MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program. The proposal intervenes in the material systems of logistics to recontextualize a major but invisible part of many people’s daily lives: the industrial pallet rack. Therefore the project is made of RACKS, TRACKS, and STACKS. Laufs Engineer Design was proud to provide structural engineering support and lament it will not be realized this year.

Yesterday (February 1, 2018), Laufs ED’s collaboration with designers ArandaLasch + Marcelo Coelho was unveiled in Times Square for the annual Valentine Heart Design installation. As a commentary on the site as one of the most selfied places in the world, the designers proposed creating the worlds largest Fresnel lens out of custom high resolution 3D-printed blocks. The resulting assembly, from leaps and bounds in advancing 3D printing technology, provides alarming clarity and provides a new opportunity to rethink how we see fabrication of banal and spectacular objects and spaces. See additional pictures here.

Will Laufs was invited to lecture at TU Braunschweig University in Germany about new 3D printed connections with structural load-carrying capacity.