Design To Manufacture Of Complex Building Envelopes

This book discusses a new method for the design and engineering of complex façades. Based on the file-to-factory concept, the method combines parametric design approaches and additive manufacturing. Parametric design and additive manufacturing are both growing trends that open up new possibilities. Parametric design approaches change how planners / designers perceive building details. Further, new engineering concepts are needed to cope with the increasing complexity of architectural geometries due to the rapid developments in areas such as façade systems, modeling software and digital manufacturing techniques.

This PhD thesis investigates the question how the manufacture of complex geometry thin-walled glass fibre reinforced concrete (or GFRC) can be advanced to meet today's architectural demands.

Façades convey the image of new architecture. Today 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. The aim of this publication is to make the reader feel challenged to join the creativity or to evaluate own ideas about the future in order to keep the discussion alive. Every contribution is of relevance as long as it sincerely supports future development. Universities have, of course, a special mission to take the lead in developing long term visions and future scenarios in order to create a fecund soil for breakthroughs for the benefit of the entire building industry. This book is an inspiring example of just that.

Presenting an overview of the use of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) within buildings, this book discusses the performance of PCM-enhanced building envelopes. It reviews the most common PCMs suitable for building applications, and discusses PCM encapsulation and packaging methods. In addition to this, it examines a range of PCM-enhanced building products in the process of development as well as examples of whole-building-scale field demonstrations. Further chapters discuss experimental and theoretical analyses (including available software) to determine dynamic thermal and energy performance characteristics of building enclosure components containing PCMs, and present different laboratory and field testing methods. Finally, a wide range of PCM building products are presented which are commercially available worldwide. This book is intended for students and researchers of mechanical, architectural and civil engineering and postgraduate students of energy analysis, dynamic design of building structures, and dynamic testing procedures. It also provides a useful resource for professionals involved in architectural and mechanical-civil engineering design, thermal testing and PCM manufacturing.

The book examines the typological and technological constitution of the principal advanced façade systems in the contemporary design and experimental scenario, proposing itself as a knowledge and operational tool currently lacking in the technical literature of the sector at an international level. It considers the field of advanced façade systems in a scientific way, constituting a support for the study and the executive design. The book investigates in detail, in an analytical form, the constitution of the components on a typological and geometrical, functional and constructive level, on the basis of the documents and knowledges acquired from the essential contemporary production and construction references. At the same time, the book is configured in a handbook form as a reference for understanding and application with respect to traditional and complex façade systems. For each main type of façade, the book provides explanations and scientific information for investigating and designing the advanced façades according to the characteristics of the mullions and transoms façade system (stick system), of the structural sealant glazing façade system, of the unit façade system, of the suspended façade system and of the double-skin façade system.

Building-envelope design is an information-intensive process that requires experiential knowledge. Confronted with such a process, a human expert adds to well-known domain knowledge his own experience, or the experience of others, to support his reasoning process and guide him in typical situations. The problem-solving paradigm where reasoning is supported by reusing past experiences is called Case-Based Reasoning (CBR), and it was added to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) methodology following research in cognitive psychology. Instead of relying solely on general knowledge of a problem domain, or making associations along generalized relationships between problem descriptors and conclusions, CBR is able to utilize the specific knowledge of previous experienced problem situations called cases. CBR is a technology that solves problem by storing, retrieving, and adapting past cases. CBR systems have been proposed as an alternative to rule-based systems whenever the knowledge engineering process of eliciting rules is difficult or unmanageable. Instead, many experiences (or cases) with solutions, warnings, plans, and so forth are collected and new situations are related to a stored recollection of these past cases. New solutions are adapted from the old ones. Research in Knowledge-Based Expert Systems (KBES) for building-envelope design has shown a similar trend. While computerized assistance was imposed by the large amount of data to be processed, domain knowledge. Such fields where most of the knowledge is based on experience are often labeled as "weak theory domains," and they are prime candidates for adopting a CBR approach. This thesis proposes a CBR framework for selecting the construction alternatives during the preliminary stage of the building-envelope design process. The methodology presented aims to find the most suitable design for a new building envelope from a library of prototypical building cases and adapts it to meet the requirements of ASHRAE Standard 90.1/1989 for energy efficient building design. The study outlines the potential benefits of using CBR technology and the key issues encountered while attempting to define the CBR model for building-envelope design. Developing a hierarchy of building-envelope components identifies cases and features for design. The envelope design problem is solved through decomposition, and by combining case-based and rule-based reasoning methods. In searching for a best match to achieve a higher degree of case filtering, a connection between case-based reasoning and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is proposed. An ANN-based filtering mechanism is designed to improve the quality of case-matching outcome while enforcing the economy of case representation. The framework proposed by this research has been implemented into the CRED software system demonstrating the feasibility and advantages of using CBR methodology for building envelope design. CRED blends several Al techniques (such as ANN, CBR and KBES) while aiming to offer expert assistance to building design professionals for browsing and selecting building-envelope alternatives.

By presenting the basics of building science along with a prescribed set of details, Designing the Exterior Wall helps you understand why buildings fail and how they can be made more durable through design. Author Linda Brock connects the science and aesthetics of building envelopes through the examination of a variety of construction and cladding types. She features details from real world projects in a variety of climates, successful and unsuccessful case studies, and checklists you can use on your own projects. Helps you reduce your liability by showing why building envelopes fail and how they can be designed to endure. Moves from theory to actual construction by including hundreds of building envelope details from a broad array of projects and climates. Integrates numerous contemporary case studies, including Frank Gehry's Experiential Music Center in Seattle (thin skins), Renzo Piano's Rue de Meaux housing in Paris (terra cotta cladding), and Mario Botta's San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (prefabricated brick panels). Designing the Exterior Wall is a must-have book, whether you're an architect or a student. Order your copy today.

Advanced Building Envelope Components: Comparative Experiments focuses on the latest research in innovative materials, systems and components, also providing a detailed technical explanation on what this breakthrough means for building exteriors and sustainability. Topics include a discussion of transparent envelope components, including intelligent kinetic skins, such as low-e coatings, high vs. low silver content in glass, solar control coatings, such as silver vs. niobium vs. tin, and more. In addition, opaque envelope components are also presented, including opaque dynamic facades, clay lining vs. plasterboard and nano clayed foams. Includes real case studies that explore, in detail, the behavior of different envelopes Presents laboratory tests on existing insulation (if any, through samples extracted on-site) to quantify actual performances Provides the tools and methods for comparing, selecting and testing materials and components for designing effective building envelopes Covers both transparent and opaque envelope components, as well as opaque dynamic facades

The Ecologies of the Building Envelope theorizes the building envelope as a literal embodiment of the social, political, technological, and economic contingencies which have become embedded within it over the last century, analyzing the historical lineages, heroes and villains that helped define the complex material ecologies we see within the envelope today. While the façade is one of the most thoroughly theorized elements of architecture, it is also one of the most questioned since the end of the 19th century. Within the discipline of architecture, the traditional understanding of the façade focuses primarily on semiotic and compositional operations (such as proportional laws and linguistic codes), which are deployed on the building's surface. In contrast to this, our material and environmental theory of the envelope proposes that the exponential development of building technologies since the mid-19th century, coupled with new techniques of management and regulation, have diminished the compositional and ornamental capacities of the envelope in favor of material, quantitative, and technical performances. Rather than producing a stylistic analysis of the façade, we investigate the historical lineages of the performances, components, assembly types, and material entanglements that constitute the contemporary building envelope.