Objectives

Harmonize the European research and knowledge in the area of adaptive façades between industry and academia and foster their collaboration.

The European research effort on multi-functional and adaptive façade is very dispersed among different academic institutions manufactures, researchers, designers, and other stakeholders. This Action will serve to establish pockets of expertise (Working Groups) with common objectives and complementary skills / knowledge. These will tasked with harmonising and disseminating the recent research in their areas of competence.

Share and disseminate technological knowledge at a European level between the different stakeholders in the façade industry and the academia.

There is a vast amount of multi-disciplinary technological knowledge on adaptive facades at a European level, but this has to be organized in order to facilitate the development of new optimal adaptive facades. The state-of-the-art and emerging technologies / concepts will first be identified and a database of relevant technologies will be created. This will serve as a basis for proposing and pursuing novel concepts / technologies for adaptive facades.

Share and develop more holistic approaches, metrics and tools to evaluate the performance of adaptive facades with the purpose of standardisation and feasibility assessment of novel concepts.

There are different scales and variants of evaluation methods: numerical (component and whole building) and experimental (laboratory and post-occupancy). These will be collated and reviewed in this Action. This will include a database of available experimental facilities that will be shared among the members and with the European institutions, with the aim to provide a framework to support research and standardise procedures and results. The Action will also address some of the current gaps in existing evaluation methods for example: (a) the lack of key parameters to assess adaptive facades; (b) the lack of holistic methods and simulation tools that account for the different domains of interaction of the adaptive façade with the building and users (i.e. energy performance, physiological and psychological impact on building users, safety and structural performance); (c) the lack of a robust whole-life-cycle assessment approach for adaptive facades.

Develop an effective means of disseminating the work of the Action on adaptive facades with an emphasis on engaging with early-stage researchers, industrial partners and the wider public.

Effective communication will feature prominently in this Action. This will be achieved through the development of a web-based knowledge portal. The portal will host the results and the resources of the Action, namely:

(a) the database of adaptive technologies;

(b) the experimental procedures and the evaluation methodologies;

(c) the multi-disciplinary educational pack aimed at the development of façade engineers and researchers. The Action will also include Training Schools and stakeholder workshops.

Align and organize the efforts between the stakeholders and academia and initiate new research projects in the area of adaptive facades.

The mapped resources, interests and objectives of the different stakeholders, as well as the main outcomes from the different Working Groups (WGs) will be communicated systematically to stimulate future research and product development for new and refurbished buildings.