If there is one thing we can learn from the latest news about climate change and global warming, it is that building should no longer be built without a climate concept and an optimization of its use of energy. Façades play an important role in achieving these goals. The future façade will be more adaptable to the changing environmental conditions and it will encompass building service installations to make this possible. The façade is becoming a complex product, highly interacting as an integral part of the building, reacting on the environmental conditions and user needs.

Important steps have been taken, but we have to admit that we are far from building in an optimal manner in as far as relates to our climate. Climate-orientation is a necessity and we have to investigate how this can be done.

A new generation of tools is available today: computer hardware and software to calculate and simulate the complex relations of construction and building physics and devices that make the integrated design communication possible. But the practice has shown that being able to design something does not yet mean that it can be built. Climate orientation will have a big impact on the building industry. Will it adapt to follow the arising market needs or is it taking the opportunity to lead the trend and use it to its best benefit?

Can we continue designing buildings on a project by project basis, or will the growing complexity result in a way of building which is strongly related to a product driven architecture? In addition, it is important to look at the architectural impact of this development. What will the future climate-oriented façade look like and can it be a tool for architectural expression?

The topic is related to all aspects of building. It will effect the design as well as the building process and the construction itself. Specialists from the fields of architecture, engineering and research were asked to share their practical experience and their visions for the future of the climate-oriented building envelope.

Ulrich Knaack

Design of Construction, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology