What’s this all about? Consider these three facts: buildings account for close to 40 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions; the average office building has a lifespan of 50-100 years; more than 80 percent of a building’s energy demand occurs during its lifetime use.
These add up to a massive environmental challenge for today, and for generations to come. The solution? Energy neutral buildings – especially multi-story buildings in high-density environments. These are essential for a viable, inhabitable future.
Why aluminium? Aluminium is essential to building construction, especially in the exterior ‘skin’ where PVC is not feasible and steel is too expensive. This is significant because more than 50 percent of the energy to operate buildings – in particular the heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting – could be saved by the envelope design of the building!
Think skin A building works like our skin with regard to the interaction between “inside” and “outside.” It has ‘smart technologies’ to create the right balance. Like it, the building façade as envelope and interface to the environment is the most important component to determine heating and cooling requirements and ultimately, the building’s energy consumption.
At the heart of this challenge is the comfort of the building user. As comfort needs change – light, heat, cooling – more energy is consumed. Hence, to realize energy saving in the building envelope, three factors must be addressed: providing maximum daylight entry (solar gain) through glass facades for heat/light; maximizing exterior surface for photovoltaic cladding (but which reduces daylight entry) and reducing the energy demand of building users by minimizing exposure to external factors.
Your solution for the building skin will balance these three conflicting issues to realize energy savings, while fulfilling the functional and comfort needs of building users.
Click here to download the full brief for Challenge 2: Better building challenge
