A comparative study of the energetic performance of climate adaptive facades compared to static facade design in a Mediterranean climate

Abstract

Energy-efficient design of building façades has so far predominantly been confined to static rigid forms. Recently however, attempts have been made to design environmentally responsive façades, hereby called Climate Adaptive Façades. These have the potential to better address the occupant's requirements, while also reducing energy demand. The present paper focuses on adaptable glazed façades, in a Mediterranean climate. It investigates the simulated energy performance of three types of climate-responsive façades that could be retrofitted to an existing glazed façade, in the process comparing the results to using comparable static façades solutions. Modelling dynamic façades is not an easy task and currently no single building performance simulation package appears to be capable of completely modelling the behaviour of these façades. For this reason a number of simulation packages had to be used to determine the energy demand required to achieve comfortable indoor thermal and lighting conditions. Through the results obtained, it was possible to compare energy demand of a dual-façade design approach, dynamic vs. static, thus identifying general trends. The results also highlight the fact that in order to improve over the predicted performance further studies using specialised tools capable of modelling such novel technologies are required.