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Building Envelopes – The Key to Sustainable Construction
When designing structures, we must think about the future, and designers have a critical duty within the process of creating sustainable, energy-efficient structures. Proactive thinking is required to ensure that future buildings are completely low-carbon (and, ideally, carbon-neutral). As we move forward, sustainable construction must lead the way and the key to this begins with building envelope and facade design.
The building envelope is an extremely significant interaction between the internal and external environments for the design, construction, and operation of a facility. The building envelope or facade of the building refers to all outside elements, which include the foundation, walls, roof, windows, doors, and floors. Shelter, security, solar and thermal control, moisture control, indoor air quality control, access to daylight and views to the outside, fire resistance, acoustics, economic effectiveness, and aesthetics are the primary functions of the building envelope. Because of the many and sometimes competing functions connected with the building envelope, an integrated, synergistic strategy that takes into account all phases of the facility life cycle is required. This “sustainable” strategy encourages a greater commitment to environmental stewardship and conservation,while maintaining the intended facility’s goal and function.
With all of that in mind let us take a deeper look into the fundamental elements of building envelope design and construction with a view to their role in sustainable construction…
Optimise Site Potential
Creating sustainable structures begins with good site selection, and a building’s location, orientation, and landscaping affect surrounding ecosystems, transportation methods, and energy use. It is usually more environmentally friendly to renovate an existing building rather than demolish it and create a new one. Before deciding to build new, consider reusing and retrofitting existing structures.
Optimise Energy Use
Rather of using fossil fuels, a sustainable building should rely on efficiency and passive design features. It should meet or exceed all applicable energy efficiency criteria.
Greener Materials
A sustainable building should be built using materials that have a low life-cycle environmental impact, such as global warming, resource depletion, and human toxicity. Acquisition of raw materials, product manufacturing, packing, delivery, installation, use, and reuse/recycling/disposal should all be considered throughout the life cycle.
Improve Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)
A building’s indoor environmental quality has a substantial impact on its occupants’ health, comfort, and productivity. A sustainable building should, among other things, maximise daylighting, offer adequate ventilation and moisture control, and prevent the use of materials with high VOC (volatile organic compounds) emissions.
Improved Operational and Maintenance Procedures
Incorporating operations and maintenance considerations into facility design will significantly improve work conditions, increase productivity, and save energy and resource costs. Designers are encouraged to specify materials and systems that simplify and decrease maintenance requirements, use less water, energy, harmful chemicals and cleaners. All while being cost-effective and lowering life-cycle costs.
We ensure great performance in acoustic, thermal, energy efficiency, and aesthetic needs as part of our architectural envelope solutions. Our firm philosophy is to constantly collaborate closely with our clients, architects, and general contractors in the building industry. This manner, we can consistently meet and surpass our clients’ expectations.
Our skilled experts, combined with stringent quality control systems, ensure that excellent facade services such as:
Roofing Systems
As part of our architectural envelope solutions, we design, supply, and install roofing systems for a variety of fit out projects. Our facade engineers have extensive understanding of complicated and distinctive roofing designs, allowing us to provide developers and architects with the best possible advise. We collaborate with industry leaders to provide an exceptional standard of roofing while considering technical performance, aesthetic appeal, and your budget.
Glazing Solutions
One of the most essential aspects of a building’s facade is its glazing. They are critical in optimising and increasing the energy efficiency of any construction project. Our skilled design team can suggest and develop customised glazing solutions in-house. Each can be constructed to your specifications and aesthetic vision, with bespoke requirements and great performance.
Cladding
Various Cladding systems should ‘bring life’ to the structure. Cladding is the process of applying a substance or “skin” to a structure. It entails coating one building material with another for a variety of utilitarian purposes as well as to improve the overall beauty.