| Almost all of the systems integrations in
Saarinen’s John Deere Administrative Center
occur at the building envelope. To the right is an
anatomical section of the building at the envelope.
The sunscreen acts as an eyebrow, shielding the
office window, the eye, from direct sunlight and radiation.
The steel structure of the building is expressed as an exoskeleton
and an endoskeleton. The glazed curtain wall functions as the skin
of the building. The floor deck serves as a septum, dividing
the internal chambers of the building. Below the septum, pipes and ducts travel
which act as the respiratory and cardiovascular systems of the building.
Saarinen uses the physical integration of systems to achieve the intended effect of his design. Saarinen wanted the headquarters to reflect his client. The building’s formal honesty and ruggedness refected the agricultural heritage of John Deere and the quality and durability of its product. The integration of an intricate shading system reflected the sophistication of the successful twentieth-century company that John Deere had become. Saarinen’s freedom from any local jurisdiction’s fire codes allowed him to express the simplicity of the corten steel structural frame. To this frame Saarinen attached a louvered sunscreen, also of corten steel. The grid of the frame flows seamlessly into the sunscreen system, resulting in a mesh of steel with an orderly, hieriarchical manner. Thus, although the sunscreen is not part of the structure of the building, it becomes a lower order of the same system. This works perfectly with Saarinen’s design intention, for the primary steel structure articulates the simple rectangular shape of the bulding. The projections of the primary system support the sunscreen, which becomes more intricate and refined. The sunscreen also functions as a catwalk, where cleaning and maintenance can be performed. The floor of the catwalk is an open steel grid. The depth of the grid allows it to also act as a shading device, preventing the sun’s rays at certain angles from reaching the interior. The floor of the catwalk is also visually integrated with the eggcrate open ceiling grid of the interior office space. This louvered ceiling system acts as a baffle, reflector and diffuser for the fluorescent lighting fixtures mounted in the space above. Saarinen also uses the integration of systems in order to meet the performance mandates of the administrative center. For example, the building is placed in close proximity to the artificial lake on the site. The lake acts as a spray pond for the building’s cooling system. Also, Saarinen integrates a continuous heating vent with the curtain wall system in order to prevent condensation on cold winter days.
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