The planning of this very complex building component requires a collaboration of many specialists. A multitude of possibilities are being projected into the building envelope. Design, visionary construction, new materials, the desire to achieve optimum energy performance or even energy generation all meet with predominantly conventional crafts.

What is the future of the façade and how can we get there? What are current trends and future developments?

Experts from the fields of architecture, structural and climate design, material science, construction and product development, industry, planning and building innovations will reflect on current projects and their vision for the future.

/// Summary Future Envelope 01

Authors: Ulrich Knaack, T.Klein

Publishers: IOS press

Delft University of Technology , Faculty ofArchitecture,  Chair of Design & Construction

The renovation of buildings which are past their prime can no longer be regarded as a necessary evil that costs money and causes inconvenience. Increasingly, it is being acknowledged that to renovate a building and its façade, also known as the ‘envelope’, can hold out great advantages. Not only does it improve the quality of life and the performance, it can save energy and increase the building’s market value. This makes renovation an interesting proposition for owners, users and architects alike. The façade research group at Delft University of Technology, working with the Dutch façade builders’ association VMRG, carried out a three-year research project that yielded a number of basic requests, strategies and practical examples which it then developed together with several enlightened companies. Reimagining the Envelope reports on this exchange of ideas between science and practice. The result is a variety of strategies for renovating the envelope and examples of successful projects. It also presents a number of far-reaching design ideas.

/// Summary Imagine 06 Reimagining the envelope

Authors: Ulrich Knaack, Marcel Bilow, Thalia Konstantinou, Bert Liverse

Publishers: 010 Publishers

Delft University of Technology , Faculty ofArchitecture,  Chair of Design & Constructio

///HOUSE MAKER

IMAGINED BY: Ulrich Knaack

DATE: 15/05/2009

IMAGES BY: Ulrich Knaack, Soumen Adhikary

KEYWORDS: prefabricated, load-bearing, low-cost, system building, concrete

Container-sized house fragments are produced on the construction site.
Component size is determined by the size of the truck that produces/delivers the parts. Integrated snap-on connections make assembly easy. The size of the building is unlimited, because any number of elements can be mounted to each other.

/// Speed Skating Hall, Inzell

Client: Gemeinde Inzell
Completion: 03/2011
Gross area: 20.000 m²
Architect: Behnisch Architekten, München und Pohl Architekten, Jena
Structural: Köppl, Rosenheim und Haumann & Fuchs, Traunstein
Building physics: PMI, Unterhaching
Building services: IB Krawinkel, Krefeld (HVAC) IB Bittner, Waldkraiburg (Electr.)
Lighting design: Bartenbach Lichtlabor, Aldrans, Austria
Climate Engineering: Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH
Brief:
The existing speed skating track and hockey rink was covered and enclosed, to ensure even under unfavourable external conditions optimal training and competition conditions. It must be noted that the stadium is normally used by the German national team for training purposes as well as by other international teams. It is also used for popular sport events with more than 150 people. Events like the World Cup and Ice Speedway with 3,500 spectators a day and the Speed Skating World Cup with 7,000 spectators in one day are an exception.
For the building performance the following objectives were defined:
- Optimal training and competition conditions for the athletes
- Glare-free daylight
- No fog or condensation
- Reduction of the net, final and primary energy demand
In the integrated design process the energy and climate concept was developed with the following elements:
- Dehumidification of indoor air through sorption
- Natural lighting using translucent roof
- Separation of the air currents for the athletes and the
audience
- Minimization of the IR radiation exchange between ice rink
and roof using low-e-coating
- Use of waste heat from chiller devices
- Heat from biomass (primary energy factor PEF = 0.2)
The performances of the built stadium are as good as expected and validate the simulation result and forecast.
The speed skating hall Inzell by international standards offers greater comfort and “fast ice” to the athletes while minimizing the primary energy demand.

///Dolce Vita Tejo Lisbon, Portugal

Client: Charmartin
Completion: May 2009
Building area: 46.000 m²
Architect: RTKL, London; Promontorio, Lisbon
Structural: Atelier One, London
Heating, Ventilation, Plumbing: LMSA, Lisbon
Climate Engineering: Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH
Thomas Auer, Friedemann Kik, Markus Krauss
Brief
The design idea for the new shopping mall, Dolce Vita Tejo in Lisbon, was to realize a transparent foil cushion roof, which spans over 46.000 m². The main objective for the Climate-Engineering was to develop a solution, which would provide thermal comfort and high daylight availability at the same time.
Due to the location of the site – Lisbon with above 1600 kWh/m² solar radiation and an average yearly ambient temperature of about 17°C, this was a challenge for the design team. The solution is different coatings on specific parts of the cushion roof, allowing low energetic north diffuse light to enter the mall, but provide shading from the direct sun. The mall area will be conditioned with a floor cooling system in combination with jet nozzles.
Louvers at the perimeter can be opened for natural ventilation, minimizing energy consumption.
Only with the combination of different design tools (daylight simulation, dynamic thermal simulation and CFD) it was possible to find an optimized the solution.
On the site the construction work already started and we are looking forward to go shopping in Lisbon.
Site factors:
- Geographic position: latitude 38,71° north, longitude
-9,13° east, 56 m above sea level
- Solar irradiance (on horizontal surface per year):
1683 kWh/m²
- Maximum humidity 16 g/kg
- Hours per year > 25°C: 673 h
- Mean annual temperature: 16,8 °C
- Mean wind velocity at 10 m: 3,75 m/s
Tools:
- Dynamic thermal simulation with TRNSYS
- Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) Gambit and Fluent
- Daylight simulation and shading studies with RADIANCE

///efnMOBIL

european façade network MOBIL – efnMOBIL

work program „emerging envelopes“ 2013-2016

powered by Alcoa Foundation and Architecture for Humanity

a cooperation of:

TU Delft / the Netherlands

Faculty of Architecture

Prof Dr. Ing Ulrich Knaack

and

Hochschule Ost Westphalen-Lippe – Germany

Detmolder Schule für Architektur und Innenarchitektur

Prof. Dr. Ing. Uta Pottgiesser

Being involved in education and research we believe in the potential of the inspiring energy that workshops and 1:1 mock-up buildings generate for young and developing architects, designers and engineers. Nothing exceeds the experience of seeing one’s own design physically developing and participating in the materialization. All aesthetic, special and technical performances of the design can be experienced and evaluated, problems in the realization become apparent and guide toward a better understanding of the process and the technology.

The efnMOBIL program  “emerging envelope” will be a traveling workshop during the years 2013 till 2016 -  being active in several locations in Europe and provide the facility to experiment, build and evaluate building envelope constructions.

Schedule

-2013  Detmold

November 2013  / workshop

-2014   Bath

June 2014 / workshop

-2014   Aachen

July 2014 / workshop (thinking skin)

-2014  Düsseldorf

October 2014 / Glastec (exhibition)

-2014   Lucerne

November 2014 / workshop

-2015   Delft

May/June 2015 / workshop

-2015    San Sebastian

June / July 2015 / workshop

-2015   Detmold

November 2015 / workshop

-2016   Düsseldorf

October 2014 / Glastec (exhibition)

/// House of the future

IMAGINED BY: Behnisch Architects in cooperation with M. Bilow and U. Knaack

DATE: 13/07/2007

KEYWORDS: structure, façade, modules, functions, adaptability

Performance: adaptability

This building was developed for the campus of IIT in Chicago with the purpose of highlighting new and future technologies. To counteract the problem that, upon completion, the building would no longer be a house of the future, the façade was developed as a load-bearing frame that can accommodate changing new and innovative components. In a first version, functional components have been arranged across the entire façade depending on the requirements of the interior space and the geographic orientation. In this example, functional panels for solar power and collector surfaces, for example, are mounted on the southern part of the façade; while the northern façade is equipped with highly insulated or translucent elements.

/// Façade Master- Hochschule Luzern 

http://www.hslu.ch/technik-architektur/t-ausbildung/t-ausbildung_master/t-master_mse/t-master_mse_public_planning.htm

http://www.hslu.ch/technik-architektur/t-forschung-entwicklung/t-forschung_entwicklung_bautechnik/t-forschung_entwicklung_fassaden_metallbau.htm

Another interesting MSc. program in our network managed by Hochschule Luzern, that offers interesting information and knowledge concerning façades design and construction.

///Journal of Façade design and Engineering 1 (2013) 1

http://iospress.metapress.com/content/p73j58358601/?genre=issue&issn=2213-302X&issue=current

We are delighted to announce the launch of the Journal of Facade Design and Engineering. It is the result of an ongoing discussion with colleagues from our discipline about the need for a scientific platform that focusses on the building envelope.

Since we founded the Facade Research Group at the TU Deft in 2005, we observed a growing demand for façade design and engineering in the building field. One reason obviously is the importance of the facade related to the energy consumption of buildings as well as the user comfort. This development is also reflected in the scientific field; with many questions yet to be answered. They concern technologies, methods and tools to reach the above mentioned energy savings of buildings.

We need to investigate constructional, functional and formal developments of the building envelope and we need more fundamental and in-depth knowledge about façade building materials and structural aspects.

This means Facade Design and Engineering is a multidisciplinary field that touches many other scientific disciplines such as Climate Design, Building Physics, Structural Design, Architectural Design, Process Management, Product

Development and many more. On top of that, we believe that the dissemination of science into practice and industrial innovations must be one of the main targets of the journal.

When the European Facade Network was founded in 2009 (http://facades.ning.com), an international community was established that allowed us to start creating a new scientific platform:

Façade Design and Engineering is a peer reviewed, open access journal, funded by The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO (www.nwo.nl). We see ‘open access’ as the future publishing model. But it certainly requires new financial models which we will have to explore in the coming years. However, primarily it is a great opportunity to attract a broad, open and lively audience and author community.

The first issue is an important step. We received a lot of interesting paper contribution by different colleagues and the following issues are already planned. The final goal is to publish four 4 issues per year. While proceeding, we now face the challenging task to shape the scope of the journal in detail (which is currently rather broad) and we need your valuable contribution to it. The published content is one outcome of this activity; the other is the scientific discussion around our interesting discipline.

May JFDE become a valuable resource for professionals and academics involved in the design and engineering of the building envelope. We are looking forward to many interesting contributions and discussions!

Ulrich Knaack, Tillmann Klein

/// Stylos Pavilion 

Competition, design, and realisation of the new Stylos Pavilion

Every five years the society of architecture students of Delft, STYLOS, holds a competition among students to design a pavilion for common use. The chair Design of Construction guided the project organisationally and technically.

The design elected in 2006 represents a “black box” of 10 by 10 meters which will continuously turn green by plants growing on all five surfaces. The design and construction of the building with its 9 meter high “platform-frame” construction was planned and executed by students of Delft Technical University.

The main structure of the pavilion consisted of only 4 wall units, each measuring 10 / 9 meters, and 5 roof-plates of 10 / 2 meters, which were mounted in only one day.

The vertical green façades generate the main appearance of the pavilion. The façade was equipped with different species of plants, alternating flowering periods, varying with the seasons of nature. The construction has been widely published and quoted.

PROJECT INFORMATION

Project leader: Ulrich Knaack

Executed by: Ulrich Knaack, Thiemo Ebbert,

Period: October 2005 – December 2007

/// Urban space envelope

IMAGINED BY: Behnisch Architects in cooperation with imagine structures and imagine envelope

DATE: 25/09/2007

KEYWORDS: umbrella, structure, climate, sustainability, comfort

Performance: space coverage

This roof concept was developed for a competition in Rome. The goal was to create a comfortable outside space with the use of individual umbrellas. Each of the umbrellas fulfils a different function within the urban environment; in their entirety they create sustainable and comfortable shelter. In addition to classic functions such as sun protection, the umbrellas can serve to collect rain water or generate electricity by means of photovoltaic cells. Light mist can be sprayed from the umbrella shafts to cool the entire plaza by adiabatic cooling. The use of solar power and collected rain water makes this concept virtually energy self-sufficient.

/// IPC-The Living Skin

Collaborative Research with façade construction companies in cooperation with the VMRG.

PROJECT INFORMATION
Project leader: Ulrich Knaack
Executed by: Ulrich Knaack, Marcel Bilow; Thalia Konstantinou
Period: 2009 – 2011
Budget: 37500 Euro
Funded by: TU Delft, VMRG

/// Norddeutsche Landesbank administration center Hannover (D)

Building owner:
Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale, Hannover
Completion / Occupation: 04/2002
Building area: 77.000 m²
Architect:
Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner, Stuttgart
Structural engineer:
Arge Wetzel + von Seht, Hamburg; Pfefferkorn + Partner,
Stuttgart
Façade:
Erich Mosbacher, Friedrichshafen
Building physics:
Horstmann und Berger, Altensteig
Building services MEP:
ArgeTGA, Becker & Becker, Braunschweig; Lindhorst,
Braunschweig; Grabe, Hannover; Taube – Göerz-Liegat,
Hannover; Federführung: Gierke, Braunschweig
Lighting engineering:
Bartenbach Lichtlabor, Aldrans / Innsbruck (AT)
Project supervision:
NILEG, Hannover
Climate Engineering:
Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH
Project manager: Peter Voit

Brief:
A transparent office complex with a dazzling 17-story high-rise and a compact block construction not exceeding seven stories that wraps around a generous inner courtyard.
Environmentally sound measures were to be implemented while keeping within financially justifiable bounds. The objective was to comply with the thermal protection regulations in place at the time. One specific aim was to do without room air conditioning whenever possible.

Site factors:
- Geographic position: latitude 52.37° north, longitude 9.72° east, 63 m elevation above sea level
- Solar irradiance (on horizontal surface per year): 934 kWh/m²
- Humidity (1%): > 12.4 g/kg
- Local temperature conditions: min -13.1 °C, max 32.5 °C
- Average temperature of hottest month: 16.8 °C
- Mean annual temperature: 8.7 °C
- Temperature difference day/night during hottest month: 10.4 K
- Mean wind velocity (at 10 m): 4.0 m/s
- Main wind direction: 260° WSW
- Local ancillary conditions: downtown location beside a 6-lane street

Concept:
- Underground heat exchangers for seasonal hot and cold thermal storage
- Exterior solar protection with optimized daylight redirection
- Building component cooling
- Window ventilation for overall ventilation as well as night flushing, partially in combination with double-skin façades
- Vacuum tube collectors for water heating
- Absorption cooling machine

Tools:
- Weather data analysis
- TRNSYS for thermal simulations
- TRNSPILE for the sizing of the underground heat exchanger/building component activation systems
- FIDAP for air flow simulations of the double-skin façades and halls
- RADIANCE for shading projections
- 1:20 sectional model for visualizing air flow

/// Movewindow

Concept of an moving window within an insulated layered system. Developed during an imagine workshop at TU Delft.

Component surface morphology and entropy management of a ceramic building façade.

PROJECT INFORMATION
PhD Researcher: Jason Oliver Vollen, RA
First Mentor: Prof. Dr. Ing. Ulrich Knaack, Prof. Dr. Ing Tillmann Klein
Period: 2013-16

/// NEXT Active Facades

Development of Building Service Integrated Façades.

PROJECT INFORMATION
Project leader: Tillmann Klein
Executed by: Tillmann Klein, Eric van den Ham
Period: 2009- August 2010
Budget: € 22.000
Funded by: Alcoa Architectural Systems,
TROX Technik, Somfy

/// Design and Construction Chair in TU Delft

The chair Design of Construction engages issues that are related to building constructions. The spectrum goes from the relation between functional and structural aspects, via building technologies specific for a material, to the development of principles for constructive elements, components and building systems. Through research into these aspects several issues can be developed, analysed, applied and evaluated, like the relations between functions, regulations and user preferences, or the engineering process of buildings. Moreover, innovative techniques and strategies for integrating functions are developed.

/// AfH | Architecture for Humanity

Architecture for Humanity, a nongovernmental grand organization focusing on buildings for a more sustainable future through the power of professional design, is supporting the efnMOBIL project by administrating and facilitating the  program “emerging envelopes” supported by Alcoa

/// Cinark / Anne Beim

CINARK develops, accumulates and co-ordinates research and education activities concerning the production of industrial architecture from a sustainable point of view.

/// Chair structure and construction / Holger Techen

The department offers various programs, which focuses on different areas of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geomatics represented in four undergraduate and eight master’s degree programs.