An Adaptive Building Skin Concept Resulting from a New Bioinspiration Process: Design, Prototyping, and Characterization

Abstract

Building envelopes can manage light, heat gains or losses, and ventilation and, as such, play a key role in the overall building performance. Research has been focusing on increasing their efficiency by proposing dynamic and adaptive systems, meaning that they evolve to best meet the internal and external varying conditions. Living organisms are relevant examples of adaptability as they have evolved, facing extreme conditions while maintaining stable internal conditions for survival. From a framework based on the inspiration of living envelopes such as animal constructions or biological skins, the concept of an adaptive envelope inspired by the Morpho butterfly was proposed. The system can manage heat, air, and light transfers going through the building and includes adaptive elements with absorption coefficients varying with temperature. This paper presents the developed framework that led to the final concept as well as the concept implementation and assessment. A prototype for heat and light management was built and integrated into a test bench. Measurements were performed to provide a first assessment of the system. In parallel, geometrical parametric models were created to compare multiple configurations in regards to indicators such as air, light, or heat transfers. One of the models provided light projections on the system that were compared with measurements and validated as suitable inputs in grey-box models for the system characterization.

From Flora to Solar Adaptive Facades: Integrating Plant-Inspired Design with Photovoltaic Technologies

“…One of the first studies that utilized the term "adaptive facade" (AF) was [22] in its first edition in 2007 [6]. It has been followed by the concept of the adaptive building envelope in the literature which is defined by different terminologies such as "adaptive building skin" [23], "adaptive building facade" [24], "climate adaptive building envelope" [25] and so forth. "Climate adaptive building shell" was introduced by Loonen et al [26].…”

Exploring the Feasibility of Utilizing Palm Tree Texture for a Self-Cleaning Architectural Design of Building Envelopes

“…Building envelope function as a barrier between the distinctive environment of a building, including the resistance to heat, water, air, light, air and noise transfer as declared by Uzair Muhammad et al, [16]. Hubert et al, [19] found that the building envelope is one of the important elements of outer shell of a building to maintain the indoor condition as a dry, heated, or cooled indoor environment and facilitate its climate control. Building envelope is also a key aspect of energyefficient-high performance building, solar gains, air leaks, water leakage, moisture control, and thermal loose and gains are all affected by building envelope design and construction.…”

A state-space model to control an adaptive facade prototype using data-driven techniques

“…The concept called Stegos was designed through a interdisciplinary work of engineers, architects, designers in [33]. It was inspired by the radiative properties of two animals: the morpho butterfly, which presents emissive adaptability on its wings to adjust to an increase in body temperature [34]; and the chameleon for its color changes, thermal regulation and camouflage, through the spatial modification of its dermal crystalline network [35].…”

“…An insulation foam was added between the two assemblies to ensure proper contact and no trapped air. Detailed characteristics of the devices and their position can be found in [33].…”

“…The objective of this work was to propose a reduced order model to simulate the thermal behaviour of an adaptive envelope concept which was developed and tested using a real monitored prototype. Called Stegos, this concept of a second skin made of hexagonal flaps manages heat transfers through building facades using two mechanisms: a manual change of flaps position and a coating [32,33]. Once the reduced model was validated, MPC was developed to obtain the optimal values of control parameters (color and position of flaps) to improve the energy efficiency of the prototype.…”