Building Envelope Innovation: Smart Facade for Shading of Building

Reyes, Sofia; Gauthier, Faye L.; Jones, Stephanie Alison; Johannes, Katherine E.

Student Work

Building Envelope Innovation: Smart Facade for Shading of Building Public

With a focus on dynamic facades and overall building energy efficiency, this project resulted in a shading device that implements the use of a shape memory alloy, specifically Nitinol, to directly respond to solar heat. To evaluate the concept, a prototype was constructed and tested, forces were calculated, and energy modeling software was used to calculate the energy savings in comparison to an unshaded baseline. The result was an energy and user independent functioning shading device that effectively lowered annual energy consumption that is comparable to other types of fixed shading yet offers a new responsive effect on the architectural impact of a structure.

Creator

Publisher