Towards an active, responsive, and solar building envelope

The key role of the building envelope in achieving building energy efficiency and indoor comfort for the user has been long established. The most promising—and innovative—strategy for the building envelope of the future is based on a dynamic, active and integrated solution, that is able to optimize the thermal performance, integrate the active elements and systems, and exploit energy from renewable sources. This paper illustrates the most relevant results of a decade-long research activity carried out on active and integrated building envelopes at the Politecnico di Torino, in which numerical analyses and experimental campaigns, involving test cells and field monitoring, have been performed. The overall performances of different façade modules and the thermo-physical behaviour of various components, under different operating strategies, are presented and discussed. The analysis provides information on the contribution of each subsystem, e.g. glazing, sun-shading devices, natural and mechanical ventilation, . . . to the achieved energy efficiency and the overall performances of different typologies of Double-Skin Façades (DSFs) and Advanced Integrated Façades (AIFs).