MOBILE SUN-SHADING DEVICES: CHANGING THE COLOUR OF BUILDINGS’ FAÇADES AND PLACES

Abstract

In contemporary buildings, where large translucent façades must enable compliance with specific standards of comfort, the external mobile sun-screens have assumed a gradually more and more strategic role. Today the sun-screened surfaces can be very large according to the size of the glass panels on the façades. They are colorful and, acting in synergy with the light, they help to change the chromatic conditions of façades, of interiors and even of the surrounding environment. The objective of this paper is to summarize the result of a research for the architectural integration of mobile sun-screen devices with the façades of the buildings, according to the most common colour combinations used in contemporary architecture. In this paper the path of the research has been outlined in four phases: a brief historical introduction and a brief classification of current screening systems (summary of the state of the art); the interaction of colour and light in some emblematic case studies (central phase of the research); a short description of the obtained results.