Adaptive Facade Research Articles

Examining Facade Adaptability: A Study of Adaptive Facade Classification Criteria

In this research, the facade classification of three different buildings located in Europe, Asia and Australia is carried out by using a classification model developed by utilising the criteria of some adaptive facade classification models in the literature. The control parameters affecting the facade design, physical environment criteria, facade adaptation method, control system and technique, visibility of adaptation and time scale criteria in the model are discussed in detail. Besides, the historical development, contemporary trends and basic parameters on architecture are analysed comprehensively. The emergence of adaptive architecture is discussed, as well as efforts to demonstrate changes in the design of elements sensitive to dynamic environmental and user needs. Furthermore, how adaptability is integrated with the building envelope and facade, the historical evolution of adaptive facades, and the development of key components are also examined. Thus, this study aims to make an important contribution to understanding adaptive architecture and adaptive facades while categorising examples of adaptive facades across three continents, including cultural and geographical differences.

Designerly Approach to Design Responsive Façade for Occupant Visual Comfort in Different Latitudes

In recent years, attention has focused on improving the health and satisfaction of employees by enhancing visual comfort in workplaces. This involves providing adequate natural daylight, glare control, and outdoor views. Adaptive facades, leveraging technological advancements, have gained popularity for improving indoor conditions but still face issues like window-area glare and insufficient daylight in rear spaces. Previous research indicates that inclined walls can help control glare and allow larger windows with better light distribution. This study examines the integration of an adaptive facade with an inclined wall to improve efficiency. It analyzes visual comfort in three cities with different latitudes and solar radiation angles: Mogadishu, Tehran, and Moscow. Using Grasshopper in Rhino software, the study evaluates visual comfort indices (UDI, ASE, sDA, DGP) for six employees on December 21 and June 21 at 9:00, 12:00, and 15:00. The results show that the integrated system effectively distributes daylight and controls glare, reducing it to 34% in Mogadishu and 29% in Tehran. However, in Moscow, the system is less effective, requiring facade rotation towards the sky to reduce glare to 25%. The research highlights the need to consider more variables such as window-to-wall ratio, material, and employees’ position or other objectives like energy consumption and thermal comfort for further research to improve the system.

An integrated design methodology for extrinsic adaptive façades – Process model, standards, and case study

Adaptive façades (AFs) offer a range of benefits by automatically changing their properties to promote improved shading, ventilation, or communication features. These can enable reduced energy and resource consumption in buildings as well as optimized comfort. The design of AFs is significantly more complex than that of conventional façades, which among other things leads to increased development costs making the technology appear unattractive as of now. A suitable methodology can provide support in this regard, as it can support collaboration and stakeholder management. For this purpose, the authors derived 26 requirements identified in previous works. These included formal, design-related, integrated, and AF-specific requirements. Yet there is no suitable methodology in the current state of the art that meets these requirements. In this article, an integrated design methodology is developed in an interdisciplinary manner using a deductive research approach based on product-neutral processes in the sectors of architecture, engineering, and construction, and mechanical engineering. The highest-rated reference model is the V-model from mechatronic product development. This model is adapted and detailed in such a way that it is suitable for designing AFs. Suitable methods, AF-specific challenges, and tasks are added. The result is a novel integrated design methodology for AFs that deals with the entire design process from commissioning to construction documents. A case study is presented as a means of verifying the methodology.

Programming quadric metasurfaces via infinitesimal origami maps of monohedral hexagonal tessellations: Part I

The control of the shape of complex metasurfaces is a challenging task often addressed in the literature. This work presents a class of tessellated plates able to deform into surfaces of preprogrammed shape upon activation by any flexural load and that can be controlled by a single actuator. Quadric metasurfaces are obtained from infinitesimal origami maps of monohedral hexagonal tessellations of the plane, that is pavings in which all tiles are congruent to each other. Monohedral tessellated portions can be joined together to obtain more complex shapes, which can be locally synclastic or anticlastic and can have a certain roughness. We broaden previous work by providing a complete characterization of all the three known types of monohedral tessellations composed by irregular hexagons. The proposed two-dimensional structures may have applications in prosthetics, tissue engineering, wearable devices, energy harvesting devices, tunable focus mirrors and adaptive facades. The study is divided in two parts. In Part I, after introducing the discrete kinematics of tessellated plates, it is proved analytically that essentially each type of monohedral hexagonal tessellation possesses only one deformation mode. Afterwards, several numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the variety of achievable surface shapes. In Part II, first the metasurfaces corresponding to assigned tile geometries are given a continuum description, which establishes that the continuous interpolant is always a quadric. Then, experimental results on fabrication, assembly and surface accuracy are reported.

From Flora to Solar Adaptive Facades: Integrating Plant-Inspired Design with Photovoltaic Technologies

Recognizing the significance of solar energy as a vital renewable energy source in building envelope design is becoming more and more important and needs urgent attention. Exploring solar adaptation strategies found in plants offers a wide range of effective design possibilities that can substantially improve building performance. Thus, integrating solar technologies with biomimetic solar adaptive solutions could establish a suitable combination towards a sustainable design. In this context, this study follows an interdisciplinary approach to provide a link between plants’ solar adaptation strategies, building integrated photovoltaics and building envelope design. To do so, a framework has been presented using data synthesis and classification to support the potential integration of three photovoltaic (PV) technologies with plant-inspired building envelope design, facilitating a harmonizing approach between biomimetic design and the application of photovoltaic technologies in buildings.

Biomimetic Facades: Enhancing Energy Efficiency of Buildings through the Luban Capsule Approach

The effective use of sustainable renewable energy sources is emphasized heavily in the vision for Oman’s energy industry in 2040 as a crucial tactic in reaching the objective of net-zero buildings. This calls for immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially by improving the efficiency of building facades in metropolitan settings. Biomimicry is a potentially effective approach that utilizes natural phenomena as a source of inspiration to develop novel techniques that mimic diverse creatures, their behaviors, and ecosystems. The goal of this article is to investigate the use of biomimicry in building facades, with an emphasis on improving facade thermal performance in order to reduce energy consumption. It explores the development and application of the Luban capsule, an adaptive biomimetic element, as a workable way to improve buildings’ energy efficiency, especially in warm areas. The study emphasizes two key points: a theoretical review of biomimicry methodologies and a critical evaluation of specific case studies that are well-known for their application of adaptive facades designed to mitigate solar heat gain. The Luban capsule, which has Omani roots, was transformed into a biomimetic element by reinterpreting the five leaves, ten stamens, and five calyxes of the Luban flower to create capsule elements with matching number configurations (5, 10, 5). The Luban capsule was then applied to the service buildings on the campus of the Oman College of Management & Technology (OCMT), adjusting their facades in response to the sun’s position along two axes: behavioral aspects (which mimic the Luban flower’s opening and closing mechanism) and organic form (which incorporates the Luban flower’s natural shape) across facades with various elements, orientations, and functionalities. The study concludes with a framework that aims to minimize the need for artificial lighting, lessen dependency on air conditioning, and mitigate glare in diffused light. These projects play a crucial role in implementing sustainable building practices that are in line with Oman’s long-term energy sector vision by reducing building energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Using KRF Structures As An Adaptive Facade And Evaluation of Daylight Performance Based on Geometry: A Case Study in Ankara

Adaptive facades are widely used today because they are energy efficient and sustainable. It is expected that kinetic facades will become more common in the future and new geometries are constantly sought. Kinetic Reciprocal Frame (KRF) structures are also one of the innovative and sustainable approaches. In this study, KRF structures are used as adaptive facades and are analyzed in two stages. As a test model, a standard high-rise office building in Ankara, Turkey is created and simulations are made on the south facade. In the first stage, the modules’ applicability in different geometries is examined and the differences within the geometries are revealed. KRF modules are examined for cost-effectiveness and mobility. In the second stage, analyzes are made on the daylight performance of the geometries. Modules are evaluated based on spatial daylight autonomy (sDA), annual sunlight exposure (ASE), and average lux. As a result, in terms of daylight performance, the hexagonal KRF module gives the best result by drawing the most homogeneous values due to its high mobility. However, it is noticed that the daylight performance of the triangle KRF module is weak compared to other modules, the ASE values cannot be controlled and it is more difficult to implement because it is not effective in terms of cost per module. The fact that hexagonal modules give good results in terms of cost is found to be good in support of it. This study is also valuable study in terms of the application performance of KRF structures on the facade.

Sequentially coupling LBNL-method and Modelica to model and operate adaptive facades with inhomogeneous printing patterns

In this work, two U- and g-value Modelica models of a three-layer membrane construction with inhomogeneous stripe pattern were set up. Thus, a simple ISO 52022 model is compared with a detailed model with Modelica integration of Klems-Matrices by LBNL method calculation. For the U-value, both models equally predict the heat transmission. For the g-value, the detailed model shows an strong angular behavior depending on the stripe pattern, the layer distances. Compared to a reference glazing, the application of an adaptive operating strategy results in a reduction of the total energy consumption by up to 27%. Depending on the operation strategy the heating energy increases between 33-100% and cooling energy decreases by 50-80%. This is mainly due to the lower g-value with the detailed model. The actuation energy required for this can be neglected. The resulting reductions in heating and cooling energy exceed the actuation energy by several orders of magnitude.

Origami-based adaptive facade for reducing reflected solar radiation in outdoor urban environments

This paper proposes an origami-based adaptive façade for reducing potentially harmful reflected solar radiation in outdoor urban environments. The Walkie-Talkie building in London is selected as case study due to numerous reported incidents related to the excessive reflected solar radiation of the building. The performance of an origami-based adaptive façade in reducing peak reflected solar radiation at the pedestrian level is investigated by means of computer simulations. The simulations are based on the hourly peak irradiance between 10 AM and 2 PM of a day in August. Initially 10 different folded states of three different Miura-fold origami units were adopted, and the peak reflected irradiance were simulated with 15-minute intervals for each folded state. The results showed that, the best performing origami based adaptive façade can reduce the peak reflected solar irradiance by 61% in average, and up to 90% depending on the specific folded state and the time of the day.

Revolutionizing the Building Envelope: A Comprehensive Scientific Review of Innovative Technologies for Reduced Emissions

The energy and thermal performance of buildings is heavily dependent on the building envelope. As such, innovative environmental building envelope technologies are being developed to improve building energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the latest environmental building envelope technologies, such as phase-change materials (PCM), aerogel, and active and adaptive systems, to offer an overview of the current state-of-the-art in the field and identify future research directions. PCM technology has the potential to improve thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption by reducing peak heating and cooling loads. Paraffin wax is the most reliable PCM for use in building envelopes, and studies have shown that it can reduce heating and cooling energy consumption by up to 20 % compared to traditional insulation materials. Aerogel is a low-density and highly insulating material that has been shown to enhance thermal insulation and reduce heat transfer in buildings. Silica aerogel can provide thermal performance up to 2–4 times higher than traditional insulation materials, resulting in significant energy savings of up to 50 %. Active and adaptive systems, such as smart windows and dynamic insulation, allow for real-time control of building envelope performance, further improving energy efficiency and indoor comfort. Smart windows can lead to energy savings of up to 20–30 % compared to traditional windows, while dynamic insulation systems can provide energy savings of up to 50 % compared to traditional insulation materials. The review assesses various adaptive facade solutions based on their suitability for diverse climate zones, versatility in application, global availability of materials used, and energy efficiency. Despite the challenges and limitations of these technologies, including high costs, lack of widespread adoption, and limited understanding of long-term performance, the authors conclude that continued development and implementation of these technologies have the potential to make significant contributions to improving building energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This review provides a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners working in the field of building envelopes and offers insights into the future research directions necessary to further advance the field.

Facade Design Strategies to utilize Daylight in Composite Climate

Abstract: An overview of the building envelopes and shading techniques utilised in composite climates to make advantage of solar radiation and daylight in modern architecture is provided in this study. It provides an examination of various methodologies and a concise analysis of illustrative case studies. As it has an impact on a building's energy usage, daylighting plays a significant part in sustainable architecture. By encouraging excellent human health, well-being, and user comfort, daylight not only lessens the need on artificial lighting but also serves to increase job productivity. This paper involves both passive strategies as well as adaptive facades that can be used in composite climate. Due to their capacity to alter their behaviour in real time in response to interior and outdoor conditions through the use of materials, components, and systems, adaptive building envelopes can enhance a building's energy efficiency and economics. Several various kinds of adaptable facades have already been created, and more cutting-edge developments are likely to follow soon. Various strategies and literature studies already existing are discussed in this paper.

Decision Support for Defining Adaptive Façade Design Goals in the Early Design Phase

Compared to conventional façades, adaptive façades (AFs) can adjust their properties in response to environmental changes and user requirements. Often performed through the integration of actuators, sensors, and control units, this provides benefits such as reduced energy consumption in buildings but also increases the complexity of the façade design. To efficiently deal with the higher complexity, this article aims to provide suitable decision support for the early design phase, identify suitable design goals, and compare these to previously implemented Afs (make-or-buy decision). There is particular focus on the AF-specific characteristics, as these are new compared to well-known conventional façades. To systematically develop decision support, requirements are identified in expert interviews and the literature, and the current state of the art is evaluated against these. Research gaps found in current methods are addressed in this article, and continuous decision support is developed for the early design phase of an integrated design process. This support includes a checklist with AF-specific characteristics and a digitally implemented database of AFs. Based on the requirements, an evaluation is performed for both methods: this includes the comparison of the results to three ongoing AF projects and the assignment of 40 case studies to the database.

AGRI|gen: Analysis and Design of a Parametric Modular System for Vertical Urban Agriculture

While many studies were done about green facades’ thermal performance, limited studies were done about green facades for productive farming. Most focused only on one facade or building. According to that, this research questioned what the potentials of farming on facades and roofs in an entire neighbourhood are and what could such a farming system looks like, and what it costs. To address these questions, a literature review about urban farming and possible crops was done. A neighbourhood of 22 multi-floor residential buildings in Nablus\Palestine, was chosen as a case study, and two parametric tools, one for analysis (AGRI|gen\Analysis) and another for design (AGRI|gen\design) were developed and implemented. The study found that in the chosen neighbourhood, existing facades can provide about 28,500 m2 of farming area, but only half of the facades and all of the roofs were suitable for daylight-based farming. Tomatoes and cucumbers can be farmed on 25% and 33% of the facades, respectively, to fulfil about 350% and 237% of tomatoes and cucumbers consumption by the same neighbourhood simultaneously. Roofs were found to be more suitable for high DLI-requiring plants like sweet peppers as they can produce more than 315 times the local consumption. In terms of design, a modular adaptive facade system was designed to fit the neighbourhood to enhance the farming possibilities. The facade system needed about 40,824 modular units of which 73.3%, 10.1%, 8.7%, and 8% of them were LED, PV, Sensor, and fan units respectively, with an average system cost of about $55.2\m2 and a total cost of $1.7M. Finally, a comparison between the system and a proposed vertical farm building in the same region was done, and then related recommendations by the researcher were suggested. This research highlights the potential for productive farming on facades and roofs, which could contribute to sustainable and resilient cities.

Implementation of ISO/DIS 52016-3 for adaptive façades: A case study of an office building

Adaptive building envelope technologies can increase the energy efficiency of buildings. Adaptive facades can be controlled automatically and respond to environmental changes. There is no standard method for evaluating control strategies for adaptive façade elements, particularly for dynamic shadings. Therefore, the ISO/DIS 52016–3 recommended different default control strategies to compare the energy use of various building variants. ISO/DIS 52016–3 presents the procedures for considering the effect of adaptive building envelope elements in calculating the energy needs for heating, cooling, internal temperatures, and sensible and latent heat loads. This paper presents a comprehensive study of the impacts of the newly published ISO/DIS 52016–3 on energy performances and thermal comfort in office buildings with adaptive facades. The simulations were performed for an office room in Brussels with four scenarios: no shading and fixed shading (fixed horizontal louvers) with static control, external roller blinds, and Venetian blinds employing automatic control strategies suggested by ISO/DIS 52016–3. Energy Management Systems (EMS) as a user-customized coding plugin in EnergyPlus was utilized for implementation of each control strategy algorithm. The findings indicated that in the case of roller blinds, the energy performance of the selected office was improved by 19.47% compared to the fixed shading. This study shows that the chosen roller blinds performed the best in decreasing the annual cooling loads with a value of 63.9%, 44.12%, and 8.2% compared to scenarios of no shading, fixed shading, and Venetian blind, respectively. Furthermore, the results showed that the fixed shading would occasionally outperform automated Venetian blinds.

Targeting modular adaptive façade personalization in a shared office space using fuzzy logic and genetic optimization

In shared office spaces, occupants' comfort criteria are limited to locally controlled zones while ambient features of the environment and the potential negative impacts of others' behavior require a well-designed control system, especially over adaptive façade elements. This means setting up control strategies for a wider spectrum of varying comfort perceptions from person to person dictates an approach towards personalizing adaptive facades. Thereby, this research coupled a simulation-based methodology with fuzzy logic and a genetic algorithm to personalize façade modules based on the visual discomfort conditions of the occupants. Results confirmed that increasing the control freedom by personalization accounting for multi-objective criteria including glare, daylight, and view could satisfy occupants from 83% to 100%. Moreover, the proposed façade personalization framework could enhance visual comfort compared with two typical automated Venetian blind controls, significantly. This study provides novel insights for designers and operators to decentralize facades' elements by accepting occupants’ feedback as part of their control loops.

Why are adaptive facades not widely used in practice? Identifying ecological and economical benefits with life cycle assessment

The challenges concerning climate change require innovative approaches. Adaptive façades (AF) represent a promising approach, as making the façade adaptable brings several benefits such as less energy usage or increased comfort. Nevertheless, they are not widely used in practice, since the known advantages/motivators appeal in particular to stakeholders who have little involvement in the decision-making of the design process and entail compromises to stakeholders who do. In this article it is shown that besides the known advantages and compromises of AF, there are further motivators for stakeholders with high decision-making power. In a case study, a building with typical centralized ventilation is compared with a building where an AF with an integrated ventilation system was installed to substitute the centralized ventilation system. This results in a lower building height and corresponding weight of the construction, as the central duct system can be eliminated. 3 m of building height and up to 340 tons of material can be saved, which results in avoided impact on climate change of 110 tons CO2-eqviv. (−7%). During utilization, 615 tons of CO2-eqviv. Can be avoided. The lifecycle costs can be reduced by 485,000 € while the rentable floor space can be increased by 4%.

Revolutionizing the Building Envelope: A Comprehensive Scientific Review of Innovative Technologies for Reduced Emissions

Abstract This paper reviews innovative building envelope technologies that can improve total building energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The building envelope has a significant impact on energy and thermal performance, making various technologies like phase change materials, aerogel, and active and adaptive systems essential for enhancing the building envelope’s energy efficiency. Phase change materials reduce energy consumption by lowering peak heating and cooling loads, improving thermal comfort. Paraffin wax is considered the most dependable phase change material for building envelopes, as it can decrease energy consumption for heating and cooling. Study shows that active PCM thermal energy storage system can reduce room temperature by 6.8 °C in summer. Aerogel, in comparison, is recognized for its exceptional insulation capabilities and low density that minimize heat transfer and boost thermal insulation in buildings. Silica aerogel’s outstanding feature is its capacity to offer thermal performance that surpasses traditional insulation materials by 2–4 times, thereby delivering substantial energy savings of up to 35 %. Active and adaptive systems, such as smart windows and kinetic facades, enable real-time control of building envelope performance, improving energy efficiency and indoor comfort. Smart windows can lead to annual energy savings up to 35.9 kWh/m2 compared to traditional windows, and kinetic facades can reduce cooling loads for buildings up to 21 %. The review assesses various adaptive facade solutions for their suitability in diverse climate zones, versatility in application and energy efficiency. Despite the existence of some limitations and challenges, such as high costs and insufficient understanding of their long-term performance, the continuous development and deployment of these technologies can still yield a significant contribution to improving building energy efficiency and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

Applications of Biomimetic Adaptive Facades for Enhancing Building Energy Efficiency

The façade is the main component related to the design, occupation and performance of buildings. In the past, traditional facades were always constructed as load-bearing structural elements without flexibility, which made it impossible to deal with the changing environment, resulting in the consumption of large amounts of energy to maintain the internal comfort conditions. Biomimetic adaptive strategies have been proposed as an optimal solution for improving building façade performance. This paper aims to present biomimetic strategies that are translated into design solutions for dynamic façades, resulting in adaptive, flexible and more efficient façade design. Several illustrated case studies and researches have shown the high potential of biomimetic adaptive facades to reduce total energy consumption without reducing the internal comfort of buildings, which is a promising new approach to energy-efficient and sustainable building solutions.

Adaptive Façades: Review of Designs, Performance Evaluation, and Control Systems

Adaptive building envelope systems can manage energy and mass transformation between indoor and outdoor environments, which contributes to the achievement of environmental benefits via reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission while maintaining human comfort and well-being. However, the market penetration of adaptive façades (AFs) is far from sufficient, even though their capabilities have been recognized in research. Hence, this paper explores the factors hindering the growth of the market share of AFs, based on an exhaustive examination of designs, evaluation criteria and tools, and control systems. Insufficient commercial technology, inaccurate and incomplete performance data, and inconsistent evaluation criteria are demonstrated to be the factors that have hindered the widespread utilization of AFs thus far. Future research tendencies, including reducing costs, retrofitting existing building façades, developing building performance measurement tools, and building consensus evaluation criteria that favor the wide applicability of such façades in actual practice are identified.

SLICE - Solar Lightweight Intelligent Component for Envelopes: application for the ICARO pavilion

In the ongoing race to reduce polluting emissions, a significant contribution is made by the introduction of intelligent building management systems. The European directive 2002/91 on energy performance in buildings already invited us to look at a new generation of almost zero energy buildings. Research in the field of multifunctional facades offers the opportunity to provide an immediate response to improving air quality and, at the same time, optimizing the use of resources. In fact, adaptive facades can be traced to one of the most effective strategies to efficiently manage the interactions between external and internal environments to maximize winter heating, summer shading and natural ventilation, sound insulation, daylight transfer, glare-free, and interior comfort for the occupants. Nowadays, adaptive enclosures are not only able to interact with the environment and the user but allow the energy needs of buildings to be reduced by integrating technologies to produce energy from renewable sources. The contribution will present the latest developments of an innovative kinetic device for architecture, carried out by the University of Catania; it is the result of a multidisciplinary research project involving important local industrial companies. The component consists of a composite material substrate with integrated high-efficiency photovoltaic technology. The results shown below made it possible to evaluate the use of the designed component in light and stand-alone architectures, representing a valid solution to reduce the impact on the territory even in fragile contexts.