Ajla Aksamija - Sustainable Facades: Design Methods for High-Performance Building Envelopes

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Cover design: Michael Rutkowski

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Copyright 2013 by Ajla Aksamija and Perkins+WillAll rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Aksamija, Ajla.

Sustainable facades : design methods for high-performance building envelopes / Ajla Aksamija, Ph.D., Perkins+Will.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-45860-0 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-54964-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-54971-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-54975-9 (ebk)

1. Facades--Design and construction. 2. Exterior walls--Design and construction. 3. Sustainable design. I. Title.

TH2235.A426 2013

729'.1--dc23

2012037882

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

I would like to acknowledge Bill Schmalz, RK Stewart, and Bruce Toman for their input, comments, and tremendous support during the writing of this book. Also, project team members of the featured case studies were crucial in providing the necessary documentation and comments, and I am deeply grateful for their involvement: Curt Behnke, Pat Bosch, Ryan Bragg, Alejandro Bragner, Eric Brossy de Dios, Jane Cameron, Matthew Crummey, Patrick Cunningham, Anthony Fieldman, James Giebelhausen, Patrick Glenn, Andrew Goetze, David Hansen, Scott Kirkham, Devin Kleiner, Aki Knezevic, Richard Miller, Tom Mozina, Michael Palmer, Camila Querasian, Deborah Rivers, Bryan Schabel, Dan Seng, Gary Shaw, Calvin Smith, Ron Stelmarski, Angel Suarez, Jolly Thulaseedas, Deepa Tolat, Ashwin Toney, and Mark Walsh. I would also like to thank Wajdi Abou-Izzeddine (The Dar Group) for his valued input. My research assistants, Negin Beyhaghi and Abul Abdullah, deserve special recognition for their assistance: Negin for collecting information about some of the case studies in the book, and Abul for preparation of some of the diagrams. Kathryn Bourgoine, Donna Conte, Danielle Giordano, and the Wiley production team deserve special recognition for their input during the production of this book.

Lastly, I would like to acknowledge Zlatan and Nur Aksamija for their undivided love and support.

Buildings, as the largest users of energy in our society, are also our greatest opportunity for energy conservation and protection of the environment. The rapidly growing world energy use has raised global concerns over continued depletion of energy resources and their negative environmental impacts. Current predictions show that this growing trend will continue.

The facade is one of the most significant contributors to the energy budget and the comfort parameters of any building. As energy and other natural resources continue to be depleted, it has become clear that technologies and strategies that allow us to maintain our satisfaction with the interior environment while consuming fewer of these resources are major objectives for contemporary facade designs.

This book focuses on the strategies and approaches for designing sustainable, high-performance building facades, and provides technical guidance for architects and designers. Building facades act as barriers between the interior and exterior environment. To provide building occupants with a comfortable and safe environment, a facade must fulfill many functions, such as:

• Provision of views to the outside
• Resistance of forces from wind loads
• Bearing its own weight
• Implementation of daylighting strategies to minimize use of artificial lighting
• Protection from solar heat gain
• Protection from noise
• Resistance to rainwater and moisture penetration

Control of physical environmental factors (heat, light, sounds) must be considered during the design process, as must design strategies that improve occupant comfort (thermal, visual, acoustic, and air quality). Therefore, sustainable facades must block adverse external environmental effects and maintain internal comfort conditions with minimum energy consumption. The location and climate thus are crucial factors in selecting appropriate design strategies for sustainable facades.