Credits: ZERAF project The ZERo-carbon building enabler Adaptive opaque Facade (ZERAF) is a disruptive facade concept aiming at reducing the operational energy demand of buildings and their environmental impact. These novel materials and technologies allow to transform static opaque building [...]

After the international PowerSkin conference held in Aachen (Germany), the Journal of Facade Design and Engineering has published a special edition with the Proceedings of the conference. The issue can be accessed and downloaded for free here.   The PowerSkin [...]

The new journal Glass Structures and Engineering has been published, with special editors Suwen Chen, Stefan Kolling and Johannes Kuntsche.   The main theme explored concern how buildings and, in particular, building envelopes are stressed by extreme weather conditions which [...]

The Future Envelope - Towards Zero Carbon conference took place on 15 and 16 December 2022 in Bolzano. The event, organised by Eurac Research and Politecnico di Milano, gathered many experts in the field of facade design, engineering and architecture, [...]

The Facade Tectonics Institute is pleased to announce our second biennial Vitruvian Honors & Awards Program, for which registration is scheduled to open in mid-January 2023. The premiere celebration seeks to recognize unprecedented innovation and achievements in the field of facade design [...]

The early bird fee deadline has been extended! The new deadline is now 13 November for early bird and 30 November as standard deadline. Take this as an opportunity to register to the conference!   Find all information and registration [...]

The Future Envelope conference is approaching and we are now publishing the booklet of the event. What you can find in the booklet: presentation and details of the conference, such as dates, venues, fees, sponsors... registration link presentation of the [...]

Technological advancements in facade design and construction offer opportunities to improve the performance of architectural projects in terms of people’s health and comfort, environmental impact and costs throughout the life cycle of the building. Following the motto of this year’s [...]

Together with Dr. Alejandro Prieto, we are delighted to announce that we are Guest Editors of a Special Issue for the open access scientific journal #sustainability, which aims to showcase new developments in facade design and operation that improve urban environmental issues. These [...]

The Xth edition of the ReUSO conference intends to motivate the discussion among the participants on issues related to the theory of restoration and conservation, to the methodological applications, from the theoretical perspectives to the practical applications in contemporary interventions, [...]

When: 15-16 December 2022 Where: NOI Techpark, Bolzano (Italy) Organising Committee: Stefano Avesani (Eurac Research), Miren Juaristi (Eurac Research), Enrico S. Mazzucchelli (Politecnico di Milano)   The conference aims at providing new points of view on the current state, upcoming [...]

INFINITE Newsletter #2 of April 2022 is out now!   Contents included are the following: Designed to make the difference News: The importance of context analysis in assessing the social impacts of retrofitting technologies Technology to serve people The essential [...]

This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building". Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 November 2022. Special issue editors: Dr. Miren Juaristi Gutierrez (Guest Editor) Dr. Fabio Favoino (Guest Editor)   The building sector has a high environmental impact and [...]

When: October 13th - November 10th Where: Online workshop (Zoom)   This student workshop will tackle global changes with local facades. An initiative of PUC / Chile, Tongji University / China, USC / USA, TU Delft / the Netherlands and [...]

The first week of the “ACME Seminar 2022 – Resilient Buildings Design” was successfully completed on March 22, 2022.   The workshop, which was attended by 25 master students from Politecnico di Milano and TU Graz, focused on resilient buildings [...]

On behalf of the scientific committee we are pleased to invite you to the PowerSKIN Conference, which is going to be held as virtual venue on Thursday, 8th December 2022.   The conference aims to discuss the future role of [...]

Researchers and experts and invited to submit their abstracts by the 8th of April 2022. SSPCR 2022 warmly welcomes contributions from different research fields. Pick your preferred topic among the following thematic tracks: Will the climate-neutral city please stand up? [...]

The first course on “STRATEGIES AND TOOLS FOR ADVANCED BUILDING ENVELOPES DESIGN TOWARDS RESILIENT CONSTRUCTIONS“ (doctoral program in Architecture, Built environment and Construction engineering – ABC PhD Politecnico di Milano) was successfully completed on February 2, 2022. The course, which [...]

We are happy to announce the start of our Mooc (massive open online courses) about facades: Understand the fundamental technology behind facade design and construction and the impact of the various components in facilitating the construction of sustainable, energy efficient, [...]

A new paper is out in MDPI Applied Science journal in the Special Issue "Novel Concept and Technologies of Sustainable Building Design". Title: Facades-as-a-Service: The Role of Technology in the Circular Servitisation of the Building Envelope Authors: Juan F. Azcarate-Aguerre, [...]

A new paper is out in Building and Environment Journal, Volume 211, 1 March 2022. Title: Dynamic façades – An exploratory campaign to assess occupant multi-domain environmental satisfaction and façade interaction Authors: Alessandra Luna-Navarro, Gary R. Hunt, Mauro Overend   [...]

Editors: Eugenia Gasparri, Arianna Brambilla, Gabriele Lobaccaro, Francesco Goia, Annalisa Andaloro, Alberto Sangiorgio   Rethinking Building Skins: Transformative Technologies and Research Trajectories provides a comprehensive collection of the most relevant and forward-looking research in the field of facade design and [...]

With 12 keynote lectures, the fully digital version of the BE-AM | Symposium 2021 was a huge success.   The BE-AM | Symposium 2021 took place fully digital on Wednesday, December 1, as part of the Formnext 2021 Digital Days. [...]

TU Delft started the development of a façade MOOC (massive open online course), titled: Façade design & engineering: complexity simply explained. Dr. Bilow and Dr. Knaack will be traveling in Europe to speak to consultants, specialists and scientists of the [...]

The Glass Structures & Engineering Journal Volume 6, Issue 3, 2021 is out now!

Future Engineering Talks are taking place at TU Darmstadt for the winter term 2021-2022.

This page focuses the theme building with paper, its research projects and potentials for application in architecture.

Insulated Glass Units (IGUs) are characterized by two or more sheets of glass which are physically separated by means of a air, vacuum or inert gas such as Argon or Krypton.

The aim is defining actual design wind load values for such case and also identifying the best solar plant layout and configuration to comply with productivity needs and cladding structural safety.

The testing aims at studying the façade energy behaviour over one year and will be carried out on a real building, located in the province of Brescia.

This is the next regular issue of the JFDE – it includes papers on the effects of plants growing over double façades, mitigation of seismic risks, blast resilience and a comparative analysis of semi-permanent paper based envelopes.

Bio-receptivity refers to the aptitude of a material to allow for the natural growth of small plant species on stony surfaces with minimum external influence.

The building sector presents poor performance in terms of energy efficiency and is looking for effective alternatives aimed at reducing the use of fossil fuels.

The present study aims to benchmark the models utilized for estimating the solar irradiance on vertical planes that can facilitate the determination of critical conditions.

Extensive literature exists on the use of dynamic shading devices for the control of visual and thermal comfort in non-residential buildings, however research in the residential sector is far less widespread.

A digital session of our PhD seminar, we hold twice a year at the ISM+D / TU Darmstadt in collaboration with the THM Giessen – structural mechanics group of Stefan Kolling.

The project aims to develop a cyber-physical environment for augmented studio-based learning.

Vegetated facade systems (VFS) have been used as green building envelope systems in recent years. Using VFS for ecological strategies and evaluating thermal performance of these sytems are not a new concept.

Students in the modules MID S4 – Climate and Comfort and MID S5 – Planning, Detailing and Production participated in the workshops held at Schüco´s Test & Training Center in Bielefeld during the summer and winter semesters.

On November 9, 2021, the ACME Seminar 2022 program was approved by the AUIC School – Politecnico di Milano.

The course aims to define strategies related to building resilience against climate change, focusing on the building envelopes resistance to extreme wind events.

The main objective is to demonstrate that wood construction chains can be optimized to foster both rural development and urban transformation whilst being connected with sustainable forest management in Europe.

The main goal of the ENSNARE project is to boost the implementation of NZEB renovation packages in Europe, with a focus on residential buildings.

The HEPHAESTUS project explores the innovative use of robots and autonomous systems in construction, a field where the incidence of such technologies is minor to non-existent.

Legnattivo – Modular and active facades supporting structures for the retrofit of existing buildings.

NOVA School of Science and Technology has launched in September 2021 the first Master degree course in Façade Technology with one year of duration.

SSPCR 2022 warmly welcomes contributions from different research fields: urban and regional planning, environmental and social sciences, economics, transportation, engineering and energy-related studies, computer science and geomantic as well as from the professional community.

An ongoing experimental campaign within the Façade System Interaction Lab of EURAC Research is aiming at characterizing and testing two ​adaptive façade prototypes.

The rate of renovation of European buildings has been stuck at one per cent for years, yet energy efficiency has been a key point in every European climate strategy for a decade now.