Dynamic and Adaptive Surfaces on Tall Buildings

Abstract

Despite the severe crisis that is affecting the construction industry in the Western World, in the contemporary global landscape the construction of tall buildings seems to be still very relevant. Huge buildings that probably will remain unsold (at least partially) characterize the new skyline of Milan, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Shanghai. In the configuration of these buildings the glass skin has always played a very important role: curtain-wall façades and cells façades are born for them. Today, the evolution of these façade systems seems to be directed in two different ways: on one hand we have the integration of green in the building envelope, on the other hand we have adaptive façades, able to change their configuration with different environmental conditions. The paper focuses on this second line of development by analyzing the possible solutions of architectural integration emerged from a survey carried out on a number of case histories.. The objective is to understand how the appearance of the city could change through the use of new dynamic and adaptive façades in tall buildings.