Intelligent facades
- alexandramv
- Feb 1, 2016
- 3 min read
In today's built environment, we see more and more innovative materials being used, more curtain walls, more bold steps being taken both visually and functionally.
The definition of smart facade comes from the idea of being able to incorporate self-aware systems in a building's facade, in order to provide it with the correct environmental conditions, suited for a particular time of day/year.
Therefore, most of the innovations that have been immersed in terms of building smart facades are related to regulating natural daylight and natural ventilation for a better environmental contextual response.
I have taken the liberty to pick out a few of my favourite smart facades, with an explanation of what and how they do it.
1.Syddansk Universitet, Denmark
Henning Larsen Architects' design for the Syddansk Universitet communications and design building in Kolding, Denmark, features a climate-responsive kinetic facade of perforated metal screens-1600 in total- that regulates interior temperatures.
A site-specific art installation by Tobias Rehberger features coloured LED lights that charge during the day.
The 13,700-square-meter building has a ventilation system integrated into the ceiling planes, photovoltaics and solar-heating panels. The central atrium is lit through a large skylight above and is dominated by several stairs and catwalks. Thanks to its sustainable features, the building’s energy demands are reduced by 50 percent compared to similar buildings in Denmark.
2. Maison Reciprocity, Versailles-France
- collaborative effort between Appalachian State University and Universite d’Angers
Built as an affordable multi-story house, Maison Reciprocity is organized around a central Container for High-performance Operation, Recirculation and Distribution (CHORD) that houses all mechanical, plumbing, and electrical services, and serves as an internal divider between public and private spaces. It has an intelligent, energy-producing façade.
The house is wrapped with a “living” brise-soleil modular building shell that integrates renewable energy technologies into the design. The skin is conceived as a lattice-like grid with a secondary envelope that optimizes shading of both interior and outdoor spaces. The envelope also reduces thermal gain and minimizes energy demand and consumption. Lastly, it comprises photovoltaic panels, living planters, shading devices and open cells.
3. Al Bahar Towers, Abu Dhabi
This pair of Abu Dhabi towers are sheathed in a thin skin of glass—fashionable, but not ideal for the desert climate. So the architects at Aedas designed a special, secondary sun screen that deflects some of the glare without permanently blocking the views. Thanks to a series of faceted fiberglass rosettes—based on traditional Islamic mashrabiya—which open and close in response to the temperature of the facade.
4. Mexico City Hospital
Back in 2011, the chemical company Alcoa unveiled a remarkable technology that could clean the air around it. The material contained titanium dioxide, which effectively "scrubbed" the air of toxins by releasing spongy free radicals that could eliminate pollutants. .
The new Mexico City hospital is cloaked in a 300-foot-long skin of Prosolve370e tiles, developed by a German firm called Elegant Embellishments. The technology is based on the same process: As air filters around the sponge-shaped structures, UV-light-activated free radicals destroy any existing pollutants, leaving the air cleaner for the patients inside. According to Fast Company, even the shape of the sun screen is significant: It creates turbulence and slows down air flow around the building, while scattering the UV light needed to activate the chemical reaction.
5. Bloom
Bloom, a temporary installation by USC architecture professor Doris Kim Sung, isn't technically a facade. But it's not long before a similar technique is used in buildings.
Sung's research deals with biomimetics, or how architecture can mimic the human body. This sun shade was made with thermobimetal—a material that's actually a laminate of two different metals, each with its own thermal expansion coefficient. That means that each side reacts differently to sunlight, expanding and contracting at different rates—causing tension between the two surfaces, and ultimately, a curling effect. So when the surface gets hot, the thin panels on the shade curl up to allow more air to pass through to the space below—and when it cools down, it closes up again.
Refferenced websites:
Comments