Sustainable Building

Services System
-Façade Engineering
Liau Zhan Jun P-RM 0057/18
Lu Min Yun P-RM 0041/18
Mohammadsadegh Zanganehfar P-RM 0037/18
Raymond Lim P-RM 0090/18
Siew Huey Zhong P-RM 0040/18
Tan Yong Xin P-RM 0066/18
1.0 Introduction
● The art and science of resolving aesthetic, environmental and structural issues to achieve the effective enclosure of
buildings.
● Consider aspects such as
○ design,
○ certification,
○ fabrication and installation of the building façades with regards to the performance of materials,
○ aesthetic appearance,
○ structural behaviour,
○ weathertightness,
○ safety and serviceability,
○ security,
○ maintenance &
○ build ability.
● Building façades are considered to be one of the most expensive and potentially the highest risk element of any major
project. Historically building facades have the greatest level of failure of any part of a building fabric and the pressure for
change and adaptation due to environmental and energy performance needs is greater than any other element of a
building. As a consequence façade engineering has become a science in its own right.
2.0 Fundamental Elements
2.1 Green Facade :

Green facades refers vertical green vegetation which are vegetations grow in garden beds, or green landscape install in a
container at different levels of the building facades grow across the building facade. Plants that used for green facades are
green landscape that install at building facade with a supporting framework independent out of the building such as: cables,
trellis and etc. and also climbing landscape attach directly to the building surface. Green facades can be divided into 2 types
which are direct system and indirect system.

Figure 1: Climbing Plant Attach

Directly To The Building

Table 1: System Of Green Facade Figure 2: Climbing Plant

With Support Structure
2.0 Fundamental Elements
2.2 Curtain Wall :

● Curtain wall systems are factory pre-casted systems. They are bought to the site and assembled. These are of two types
curtain wall system where are stick curtain wall system and unitized curtain wall system.
● Components of a Curtain Wall. The complete unit consist of the following structural elements :
○ Transom
○ Mullions
○ Vision Glass
○ Anchor

Figure 3: Detailed Components of a Curtain Figure 4: Mullions and Transoms

Wall System
3.0 Scope of Work
The façade is the filter to separate the interior space from
the climate outside. The basic function is to provide shelter
to protect human from outside but it also a function as
building envelope that extending the current building
façade. It’s the art and science of resolving aesthetic,
environmental and structural issues to achieve the effective
enclosure of buildings. Successful projects generally depend
on a high degree of collaboration across the design team
and throughout the supply chain. Where the collaboration
and the contractual set up is handled competently, value
can be added through excellent technical and aesthetical
detailing and risk can be managed in terms of cost and
programme.

The figure is to present effective components in façade

engineering in order to help design, management groups
and building users in the processes of ‘design’,
‘construction’, and ‘operation’ to achieve the main goal of
façade engineering of the project.
3.1 Curtain Wall (Double Skin Glazing)
During day time, once radiation passes into
the building, it is absorbed by the building
fabric and re-radiated as long-wave
infrared energy that does not pass back
through the glass.

The air in the cavity will be heated via

convection. The hot air flow in the cavity
can pass through the glazing outside and
inside the space via conduction. As the
cavity warms up the stack effect is
improved respectively, as well as the blinds
that located between the two skins reduce
the solar heat gain.
3.2 Green Façade System
Merely 5–30% of sunlight is passed
through the leaf. The others may be
reflected, transformed into heat, used for
photosynthesis or evapotranspiration.
This can effectively blocked the direct
sunlight disposal and archive cooling
effect in warmer climates and avoid heat
island effect especially in urban. Due to
the evapotranspiration, green façades can
cool the hot air through evaporation of
water. The green envelope also reduces
the quantity of UV light and cause a
positive effect on building durability. With
proper application of green façade design,
it may enhance a building performance
and reduce the energy consumption. It
also can enhance the whole ecosystem of
a building.
4.0 Latest Technology & Development
1. A completely transparent,
adhesively bonded soda-lime glass
block masonry system
The structure is exclusively constructed by
monolithic glass blocks, bonded with a colourless,
UV-curing adhesive, obtaining thus a maximum
transparency. In addition, the desired structural
performance is achieved solely through the masonry
system, without any opaque substructure. Differing
from previous realized projects, solid soda-lime glass
blocks are used rather than borosilicate ones. The
results show that the adhesively bonded glass block
structure has the required self-structural behaviour,
but only if strict tolerances are met in the geometry
of the glass blocks.
2. Next generation structural silicone glazing
This is an advanced engineering evaluation by using nonlinear analysis of
hyperelastic material that provides significant improvement to structural silicone
glazing (SSG) design in high performance curtain wall systems. Very high
cladding wind pressures required in hurricane zones often result in bulky SSG
profile dimensions. Architectural desire for aesthetically slender curtain wall
framing sight-lines in combination with a desire to reduce aluminium usage led
to optimization of silicone material geometry for better stress distribution.
To accomplish accurate simulation of predicted behaviour under structural load,
robust stress-strain curves of the silicone material are essential. The silicone
manufacturer provided physical property testing via a specialized laboratory
protocol. A series of rigorous curve fit techniques were then made to closely
model test data in the finite element computer analysis that accounts for
nonlinear strain of hyper elastic silicone.
Full-scale specimens subject to structural load testing were performed to verify
the design capacity, not only for high wind pressure values, but also for debris
impact per ASTM E1886 and ASTM E1996. Also, construction of the test
specimens allowed development of SSG installation techniques necessitated by
the unique geometry of the silicone profile.
3. BIOMIMICRY IN FACADES
Over the years, climate change has been one of the main contributing
factor to the rising need for amalgamating futuristic designs & energy
efficiency concepts. Facades with adaptive features help reduce the
energy needs of buildings and accommodate climatic requirement
better. For instance, the ‘breathing skin project’ developed by Tobias
Becker is based on the concept of biomimicry. The technology is
inspired by organic skins that adjust their pores to control the
necessary flow of light, matter and temperature between the inside
and the outside. Technologies like this one can revolutionise the way
we approach façade and fenestration for years to come. More than
anything, the moral conscience and vision of architects play a huge role
in the way facades and fenestration can revolutionise contemporary
architecture globally.
5.0 Case Study
JTI Headquarters by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), Geneva,
Switzerland

For JTI Headquarters in Geneva, SOM and Josef Gartner GmbH

developed the Close Cavity Façade system — an innovative unitized
curtain wall system that responds to the demands of seasonally
changing external climatic conditions.

SOM sought to maintain the visual qualities of an all-glass design, while

also reducing the entire building’s energy demand and carbon
emissions. The façade system consists of triple glazing on the inner layer
and single glazing on the outer, forming a cavity with a fabric roller blind
in between. The panels are sealed with a pressurized supply of filtered
and dehumidified air, in order to avoid condensation and heat-build up
within the cavity.

The double glazing

is manufactured by
Josef Gartner GmbH
Fraunhofer Institute, Würzburg

The competition for the extension of the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research in

Würzburg has been won by Zaha Hadid Architects with the idea of using glass only as

skin material for both the transparent and opaque areas, as a reference to the silica

research objective of the institute. This also leads to a sustainable approach to the

energetic balance of the building. Geometrically the five-storey building follow the

course of the ‚Luitpoldstraße‘ before swinging around towards the existing buildings

and leads to a very complex three-dimensional external envelope.

Due to the architectural wish to exclude any visible fixings, Werner Sobek developed an

innovative solution and tested it on a full-scale prototype. Monolithic glass panes were

curved by using special molds and backpainted with polyurethane to allow for a

residual safety mechanism in case of glass breakage. In general, the glass cladding is

fixed to a steel truss substructure by means of aluminum adapter frames, with screws

inserted through the joints between the panels. The frames are bonded with structural

silicone at the back of the panels.

6.0 Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Light penetration- allowing natural light to penetrate through the building fascade but also block harmful sun
rays
- Fresh Air for Occupants – Material chose provide enough open area to reduce the requirement for artificial
mechanical ventilation. When utilized in projects such as parking garages, facades can help to significantly reduce
dust & other airborne particles.
- Sound insulation- Limiting the amount of noise intrusion into the inner workings of a building is fundamentally
important to create the right conditions for people to work, live and sleep and this is an often ignored aspect of
façade engineering design.
- Reduce water and moisture penetration but still allow good ventilation and light penetration
- Elegant look to the building facade in a smooth and simplistic way.
Cons:

The disadvantages are mainly due to additional costs associated with building and maintaining
Some facade material can be vulnerable towards weather elements and required extensive amount of maintenance
to keep it in good shape.

There was a increase in cost due to the additional requirements for example reduce the heat transmittance by a
certain percentage or in Malaysia case, its the Overall Thermal Transfer Value in a building.

Delay may also occur due to the installation of these structures which is sometimes unique and a non-modular
system will require a large amount of labour and manpower to get it done by time.
7.0 Conclusion
Building façades, envelopes, or enclosures are a key element in a building’s design.

Largely responsible for a building’s performance in energy efficiency, airtightness, and water resistance, these building
“skins” are undeniably complex systems, but more than that, they are the part of a building seen by the world.

By their very definition, building façades are the public face of a building, making them the perfect canvas for the vision
of developers, the creativity of architects, and the innovation of building scientists and engineers.

As the manifestation of a project’s goals, the design and construction of the perfect façade requires the work of
specialized engineers who can balance buildability and cost through innovative solutions that allow creativity to thrive
and turn visions into realities.