Integrated Facades for Building Energy Conservation

The increasing necessity of sustainability in built environments has reinforced the role of climate responsive design in contemporary practice. Building facades - a boundary layer between indoor and outdoor environments, in turn, have transformed to fulfill adapted roles of high performance integration. The facade is no longer a mere static element that offers a shelter for users. Instead, it is an active, restorative, and generative building system that maximizes the use of natural resources - light, heat, rain, and wind and engages occupants often as a visual stimulator. This paper explores an integrated facade system as a sustainable facade alternative to a contemporary curtainwall glazing system. The facade was designed for a multi-story office building in Charlotte NC with a south facing facade to maximize daylighting year around, reduce solar heat gain during cooling seasons, and increase solar heat gain during heating seasons. Comparative analysis was carried out to understand energy efficiency of an integrated facade system compared to a baseline building in accordance with ASHRAE 90.1. Advanced performance analysis was based on EnergyPlus and Radiance simulation. Results were compared to a baseline facade system to explore the impact of integrated facade systems on building energy consumption and daylighting efficiency.