Architectural solutions specialist Aliva UK, has brought bespoke to another level with its company’s terracotta ‘trompe-l'œil’ on an Ivy League university in the States, realising facade design intent fully, through another material.

Aliva’s rainscreen cladding system has all the look and feel of terracotta but is actually a customised, profiled aluminium system that’s pushing the envelope of architectural facade innovation, one that truly ‘deceives the eye’.

It’s a material solution that has brought less physical weight to the elevations involved alongside greater cost efficiency for this flagship project at the Harvard Enterprise Research Campus, Massachusetts.

Aliva’s facade was uniquely designed to have all the look and feel of a terracotta system but its customised Alu.covering® is a lighter weight solution for the height of the two elevations and more cost effective for the project’s supply, installation and build programmes.

• Aliva’s customised Alu.covering® system in two contrasting tones of rich and luscious green glaze feature on two neighbouring buildings in the campus, a mid and a high-rise.
• Its Onda Lunga Alu.covering® with a concave profile creates a sense of flow, rhythm and unique identity for the two elevations.

This Aliva aluminium facade innovation has created a signature aesthetic for this prestigious Ivy League university campus in Boston’s Allston neighbourhood, a location that blends life sciences, retail and public space into a lively urban setting.