The potentialities of a multidisciplinary approach to façade design since early design phases

In the urban environments, façades can be conceived as public infrastructures, able to enhance not only indoor conditions, but also outdoor ones. The application of sound absorbing cladding materials has emerged as a valid design strategy to mitigate environmental noise. However, effective design solutions should simultaneously encompass different performance domains, to prevent other relevant aspects to be overlooked and potentially cause undesired effects. A broad understanding of the performance of the design alternatives during the design process is therefore essential to make performance-aware choices and achieve effective solutions in overall terms. In this study, multi-domain simulation tools are used to shed some light on the often-overlooked potential of the selection on façade cladding materials. Different material options with different sound absorbing and albedo properties were applied to the façades of two sample street canyons, in order to understand the impacts of the material choices on the environmental noise levels and outdoor thermal comfort. The results highlight that mean Sound Pressure Level (SPL) reductions up to 4 dB were found with the application of sound absorbing claddings, while high-albedo façades exacerbate the thermal stress perceived by pedestrians, with mean increases in Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) of about 2.53.5 °C.