Smart Facades: Integrating Technology into Building Skins

If you own or manage buildings, smart facade technologies may have caught your attention and made you ponder including them in the structures’ skins. These changes can conserve resources, adapt to changing conditions and more.

Designing a Nature-Inspired Smart Facade

Numerous creatures remain resilient during fluctuating weather. Researchers in Germany focused on that fact when engineering their smart facade system. It optimizes energy efficiency and interior comfort by moving if needed. 

While developing this innovation, the team took inspiration from the waterwheel plant and the striped bug to create a facade with dynamic parts that respond to exterior forces. It is now part of a botanical garden in Germany, illustrating the vast potential for thoughtful, responsive features. The demonstration project is an 898-square-foot effort containing 101 flexible flaps constructed with fiber-reinforced plastic laminates. 

These pieces fold in colder temperatures to maximize sunlight exposure and warmth. However, they open to shade the building in periods of higher heat. Accompanying machine learning algorithms assess the current and forecasted circumstances outside. Additionally, built-in photovoltaic modules power those adaptive components, making the effort greener. 

Customizing Facade-Integrated Solar Thermal Absorbers

Many smart facade specialists work on improvements that could reduce emissions, knowing the importance of that goal for meeting global climate goals and ensuring a sustainable future. Such professionals recognize how selected materials, shapes, and other details can elevate the impact of tech upgrades. 

Sheet metal is a popular exterior material due to its durability and versatility. Those wishing to minimize costs when using it can develop simpler designs, which are less expensive to make and replicate on large-scale projects than more complicated alternatives. Working with standard sizes lowers overall expenses. However, pushing the boundaries to create a functional smart facade requires examining numerous aspects to determine the best ways to optimize the results for the money spent. 

In one example, researchers assessed the specifications for solar thermal absorbers that integrate into building envelopes. The group acknowledged the foundational technology’s wide availability but reported it was rare to find options to install directly on structures’ exteriors. Additionally, components used on rooftops are not as conspicuous as those built as part of facades. 

The team overcame some of these challenges in their investigation by making custom sheet metal pieces with 3D-shaped facade features. The solar collector prototype included two layers of steel joined by laser welding. An associated analysis indicated the selected shapes could provide 792 kilowatt-hours of energy per square meter each year. The creators believe this innovation will encourage green power usage and remain broadly applicable to modern needs since construction workers can use the thermal absorber on new or existing builds. 

Developing a Climate-Adaptive Paint

Many scientists warn that people should expect increasingly extreme temperatures. That likelihood has caused forward-thinking parties in the building industry to imagine inventions that keep occupants safer and more comfortable in these demanding conditions. 

Sometimes, that means supervising projects that integrate with building automation systems. These setups contain complex assortments of hardware and software that control everything from security cameras to water management features. However, statistics indicate that fewer than 10% of properties have these technologies. That low adoption rate suggests the need for comparatively easier-to-implement possibilities, including requiring minimal or no intervention.

Although designated decision-makers often oversee integrated technologies, some might prefer lower-maintenance enhancements, such as those that require no user training. User-friendliness is a primary advantage of a recently engineered responsive paint that reflects and absorbs heat, so it is an excellent option for buildings in areas that experience seasonal weather shifts. 

The developer’s patent-pending coating uses thermochromic technology that changes the hue of entire facades. Once thermometer readings cross a specific threshold, the exterior becomes black or white. Alternatively, mixing in tints creates a look where the foundational shade darkens or lightens in response to temperature changes. 

Estimates suggest using the paint on buildings could reduce the structures’ energy bills by up to an average of 30%, making it a straightforward solution for building managers who want to enjoy smart facade enhancements without extensive changes. 

Engineers, city planners, and similar authorities apply high-tech coatings to surfaces as a proactive strategy. Many of those products only absorb or reflect warmth, making them less versatile than this invention. 

Planning a Smart Facade

These real-world examples illustrate the abundant opportunities to achieve goals through thoughtful integrations and design decisions. You can optimize the outcomes by considering the most-wanted effects, budget particulars, and construction timelines. These details will help you assess the commercially available technologies and decide whether to select one of those or find partners to fabricate custom enhancements. 

Tracking metrics before and after the selected implementation reveals the overall results and whether the smart facade needs further adjustments for maximum effectiveness. Being flexible and open to new ideas during all phases ensures you remain as adaptable as the buildings you’re responsible for.