How to make facades dynamic thanks to solar shading solutions and build energetically efficient buildings

After the official kick-off on November 11, the first European Master of Advanced Studies in Tall Building Design, promoted by the Iuav University of Venice and sponsored by Pellini and other key industry players, has finally started. The companies involved not only support the Master by financing several scholarships, but also offer students the opportunity to take part in lectures held by professionals daily involved in the design of the most innovative buildings that characterise skylines worldwide.

On Friday December 10 we had the opportunity to share our experience flanking architecture and facade engineering firms, in a lesson, held by Luca Papaiz, Pellini’s Head of Technology & Innovation, focused on the topic of dynamic facades, building envelopes that, through to the combination of design and technological solutions, adapt to variations in external conditions (irradiation, temperature, etc.) to optimise the thermal and light balance inside the building.

The façade is the boundary element between the building and the external environment and it easy to understand how its dynamism is useful to optimise exchanges between indoor/outdoor, to achieve the highest levels of efficiency or reach energy neutrality in buildings, essential targets in a period when citizens and institutions are increasingly interested in sustainability issues. The envelope can be shaped using different technologies including, for example, solar shading solutions, which play a leading role in optimising the energy needs of the buildings where they are installed, thanks to their ability to respond dynamically (changing, for instance, the tilting angle of a venetian blind slats) as the external conditions vary, thus helping to keep the internal balance unchanged.

It was very significant blending architecture, innovation and sustainability in a lecture across the canals of Venice, an area where the Campanile di San Marco will probably remain the only tall building but that, more than others, will benefit from today students’ commitment and the technologies they will choose to design skyscrapers worldwide, which will add to the actions taken collectively to reduce the effects of climate change hitting the Serenissima more and more.