Smart Skin, a climatic approach to skin design

A CLIMATIC APPROACH TO SKIN DESIGN T6: Technological Dissertation Ahmed Gamal Ibrahim

16/2/124 OXFORD BROOKS OBE PART 2 PHASE 4/YEAR 2 27 APRIL 2018 Word count: 10190

A CLIMATIC APPROACH TO SKIN DESIGN

2018- Ahmed Gamal Ibrahim

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Contents

2018- Ahmed Gamal Ibrahim

Introduction

4

Literature Review

7

The Function of Building Skin

13

Evaluation of Existing Design Strategies and Climate

20

Application

35

Evaluation and Conclusion

51

Appendices

56

Bibliography

82

List of Figures

84

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Introduction Through 18-years’ academic and professional experience in architecture, an interest in the concept of skin in architecture was formed through phases of different, layered understandings of this concept. Starting with the refusal of modern architecture movement to decorative facades, Adolf Loos stated, “ornament is crime” (Loos, 1998, p.167), describing modern architecture such that, “we have gone beyond ornament, we have achieved plain, undecorated simplicity” (Loos, 1998 p.169). This refusal supported the direct representation of space and building elements through free, transparent façades.

Driven by mass production and globalisation, the International Style appeared and received harsh criticism for neglecting the environment, climate and building relationship to its location (Colquhoun, 1997).

With the increased awareness to the environment, a new concept was encouraged by the principle of “think global, act local” (O'Riodan, 2001, p. 39).

In this sense, the building envelope has regularly been a centre of debate in architecture, questioning its appearance, relation to building programme and location impact on users and environment. This highlighted the demand for new approaches to building envelope design. This raised several questions that are investigated through this research. These questions are as follows. Why is a building envelope referred to as skin? How could current and previous approaches to building skins and envelopes be developed to better respond to changing climates and user needs, together? How can the building envelope become more than just a barrier from the elements and become a living part of the building that connects and enhances communication between the building’s uses and its environment?

In what ways do current approaches to building skins respond to the environment and how could this be developed to better respond to changing climates and user needs? Why and how does a building skin need to adapt to user’s needs and respond to changing climate? Why and how would a new design approach fulfil those criteria in a way that improves on previous approaches?

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Objectives and Methodology The first research objective is to develop a better understanding of the concept of a building skin as a medium between the users’ demands and the environment to then employ or adapt smart materials and advanced design and construction technologies. The second objective is to develop apply and evaluate an approach or method for skin design that communicates, understands and responds to climate changes and users’ demands.

This will be achieved first through existing literature by gaining a better understanding of the development of the concept of smart skin in architecture and by evaluating how previous skin design methods can illuminate a new design approach. In addition, this will be achieved by understanding how expert opinion sheds new light on prior methods, ultimately pointing to new directions. This is achieved through an expert interview with Professor Ajla Aksamija, of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA, which explores missing opportunities and possible futures of skin in architecture through the use of emerging materials.

The ultimate aim is to develop a methodology to design building skin from a climatic approach that employs both smart materials and advanced computational design methods to produce a user- and environment-responsive building skin. This methodology will be tested in the application part of the research and the effectiveness of this approach examined.

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Dissertation Structure The dissertation structure consists of five chapters. Chapter one is a Literature Review which places the dissertation in a broader context and help identify the gap in knowledge and pinpoint the research questions.

This is followed by the second chapter on The Function of Building Skin. It defines and discusses the different functions of a building skin, to then formulate targets that the strategy should fulfil.

This is followed by chapter three on the Climatic Design Strategy which investigates the design strategies for a climatic design approach for a building skin and will identify the climatic factors acting on the building, to then develop a climatic design strategy.

Chapter four addresses the Application where the main objective is to test and experiment with the process developed through the research in the previous chapters. The purpose is to examine the validity of this process in developing a climatic approach to building skin design that is responsive to users’ needs and communicate with climatic factors.

The last chapter concludes the work, which draws lessons from the research and its application and identifies potential areas for future development.

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Fig1.1 The Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe, represents free façade in modern architecture.

Literature Review Introduction This chapter places the dissertation in a broader historical, cultural and literature context to identify the research problem and ultimately pointing to the research questions. It introduces the historical context and the contemporary notion of free facades before describing some of the key approaches to intelligent envelopes and introducing the focal point of smart skin.

Modern architecture and free façade Prior to the modern architecture movement, building envelopes used to be highly decorative and represented a high level of workmanship skills. In the beginning of the twentieth century, the modern architecture movement criminalised decorative facades. Adolf Loos stated “ornament is crime” (Loos, 1998), describing modern architecture such that “we have gone beyond ornament, we have achieved plain, undecorated simplicity” (Loos, 1998). Loos indicates the refusal of the modern architecture movement to decorate façades and appears to support the direct representation of space and building elements through free, transparent façades (Fig 1.1). The definition of a building’s appearance became a subject of reconsideration, resulting from the advent of ‘free façade’ and the new constructional technologies. This indicates a distinction between the structural and non-structural elements of the building—between the building frame and its cladding (Mostafavi, 2005, p. 8).

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In this sense, a building envelope then is seen as independent of the building structure. This idea was the beginning of the free façade concept, and the first steps of the development of the concept of skin in architecture. Mostafavi suggested that “once the skin of the building became independent of its structure, it could just hang like a curtain or clothing” (Mostafavi, 2005, p. 8). Accordingly, with the idea of omitting decoration from building’s façade and concept of free façade, the task of designing a façade becomes an essential question to architects. As Leatherbarrow and Mostafavi ask, “is this [notion of free façade] a Loos? Or are there ways of thinking and working with the topic [of structure and skin] that avoid dichotomy or subjugation of one concern to other?” (Mostafavi, 2005, p. 7). Mostafavi (2006) claimed that modernism used transparency to reach a direct representation between space, structure and program. Transparency was meant to make architecture more “sincere”, in sharp contrast with the “bourgeois” practice of decoration. He says, “Architecture was no longer supposed to disguise functions, but to make them visible and render the city and its buildings immediately readable” (Mostafavi, 2006, p. 6).

This highlights the shift in the design approach to building skin from the decorative façade to free façade that could be transparent to reflect and expose the building function. On the other hand, Moussavi (2006) emphasised that a mechanism to connect architecture to culture is needed which could be achieved by capturing the visible as well as invisible forces that shapes society. These mechanisms could drive new design concepts that will influence how we constantly engage with the city in many ways (Moussavi & Kubo, 2006, p. 7).

This highlights both the importance of, and demand for, new approaches for buildings’ skin design, approaches that only represent the building function and its organisation, but also connect the building to its environment, culture and users’ demands.

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Fig 1.2. The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art designed by architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis.

Skin as Metaphor The term ‘skin’ in architecture appears to be used as a metaphor for boundaries as well as a symbol of surface. Alberti has compared the layers of a buildings’ fabric to the skin of the body from the visual point of view as well as the quality of reacting to climatic changes (Klooster, 2009, p.117)(Fig.1.2).

This comparison is very inspiring, as it looks at the building envelope as an extension of the body’s skin. That important layer of protection is ‘smart’ enough to adapt to climatic changes, like the body’s ability to adjust heat loss by redirecting the blood flow toward or away from the skin without any effort, through a process known as conductance adjustment. It keeps the body comfortable within a range of temperature that is slightly higher or lower than the body temperature (Drake, 2007, p. 9). Mitchell (2003) depicts how the metaphor of human skin might extend to and connect with buildings.

“My natural skin is just layer zero of a nested boundary structure.

When I shave, I coat my face with lather. When I’m nearly naked in the open air, I wear- at the very least- a second skin of 15spf sunblock. My clothing is a layer of soft architecture, shrink wrapped around the contours of my body. Beds, rugs, and curtains are looser assemblages of surroundings fabric- somewhere between underwear and walls. My room is a sloughed – off carapace, cast into a more rigorous geometry, fixed in place, and enlarged in scale so that it encloses me at a comfortable distance. The building that contains it has a weather-proof exterior shell.” (Mitchell, 2003, p. 7)

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This quotation illustrates the basic concept of the relation between humans and architecture, for architecture could be considered as a normal extension to human body. More specifically, the first layer is the human skin, second layer is clothing and third layer is a building skin, where protection and comfort are the main drivers of this layering.

Lupton (2002) defines a body’s skin as,

“a multi-layered and multipurpose organ. It serves not only as a protective membrane layer, but also a knowledge-gathering device across the landscape of the body. […] Responding to different environments such as cold, heat, pleasure and pain, as it shifts from thick to thin, tight to loose and lubricated to dry, it lacks definitive boundaries as it flows continuously from the internal flesh to the exposed surface of the body. It is both living and dead, from the senseless exterior surface to the inner layers which attached to other systems like nerves and glands. This sophisticated section added an important advantage to the character of the skin as a self-repairing and self-replacing material” (Lupton, 2002, p. 29).

Lupton’s definition illustrates how smart a body’s skin is—more advanced technologically than a building skin. Therefore, the skin metaphor is relevant to building skin design. The skin metaphor brings back the connection between the building envelope and the users.

Relation to the human is very important; however big the building is, the skin comparison makes it feels relevant to us as humans, which is an important factor that modern architecture has neglected.

Furthermore, the comparison to body skin intelligence is very inspiring from the point of view of having the ability to adjust effortlessly. This concept when applied to architecture would result in more of a ‘smart skin’, rather than a building envelope that only is decorative, a blank canvas, or transparent. It adds more depth to how a building skin design should be approached, both conceptually and technologically.

This points to potential moves from conceptual metaphor to reevaluation of method and application.

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Fig 1.3. The award winning HelioTrace Adaptive Façade system

by SOM/ABI/ Permasteelisa, 2010 showing the integrated approach to control the environment

Skin beyond metaphor Today, the use of the term ‘skin’ referring to a building envelope is more than merely a metaphor. This is argued twofold by Wigginton and Harries in their 2006 book, “Intelligent Skins”. Firstly, because the buildings’ envelope separates and protects the inside from the outside like the human skin separates the inside from outside and protecting the internal organs from any environmental damage. Secondly, the building envelope could be literally a complex intelligent membrane capable of the exchange of information, energy, communicating with environment and responding to cultural and climatic changes. Finally, they suggest it can be designed to operate as part of the buildings’ holistic environmental control and management system; by using sensors, actuators and command wires, the building skin could respond to spaces changing requirements (Wigginton & Harris, 2006, p. 3).

The 20th century witnessed an advancement of the building skin as a focus of design innovation. Many different terms describing a building skin, such as smart, responsive and intelligent, have been introduced (Velikov, 2013, p. 80). This was a result of rapid advancement in building engineering, science, computer engineering, artificial intelligence and design.

The term ‘Intelligent’ has been used widely in the construction industry in the 1960s and 1980s. ‘Intelligent systems’ referred to the programmable zones of a building’s heating and ventilation. The term intelligent defines the goal of the building skin: to optimise the building’s systems relative to climate, energy balance and human comfort based on predictive models (Velikov, 2013)(Fig.1.3).

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This is often achieved through building automation to adaptive elements such as louvers and vents. As Atkins (1988) explained in his book ‘Intelligent Buildings,’ the main operations that define intelligent skins are, 1) to ‘know’ by gathering information from the environment such as temperature, humidity or movement, and 2) ‘decide’ how to provide comfortable environment and ‘respond’ by taking action to change components or material behaviour (Atkin, 1988). This system normally employs a variety of sensors that communicate with a building control system to optimise interior conditions, including computational protocols capable of rebalancing the system by controlling mechanical systems for the skin and HVAC systems (Velikov, 2013, p. 80) While the term ‘smart’ has mostly been used in association with material or surfaces. Smart surfaces have been defined by Addington and Schodek (2005) as systems containing “embedded technological functions” that respond to an activating event and operating through either internal physical changes or external exchange of energy (Addington & Schodek, 2005). The main characteristic of smart materials is that they are responsive to more than one environmental condition, provide real-time response, self-actuation and the response is predictable (Addington & Schodek, 2005, p. vi). From this perspective, smart materials act as a sensor and actuator; smart materials in this sense can be considered machines that provide motion without motors (Menges, 2015, p. 68).

Conclusion This chapter has been setting out the research in its wider context by tracing the recent development to the building skin in modern architecture and identifying the need for new concept/ mechanism to approach building envelope design. Also identified the use of the word skin in modern architecture metaphorically as well as physically and highlighted the current approach of design using intelligent and smart skin.

In summary, the research problem is the current design approach to building skin which points to the research questions. In the next chapter, the research questions and research methods are outlined.

This is followed by a new design method proposed to overcome the problems identified.

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The Function of Building Skin The purpose of this chapter is to identify the functions of a building skin to address the need for a new design approach to building skin prior to unpacking the current and proposed climatic design approaches in the following chapters. In the following sections, the skin as a medium between the users and environment is discussed, and the impact of technology on users and spaces is identified as important key. However, the missing elements are how the skin responds to both user and climate changes which are taken up further in Chapter three.

This ultimately points to the need for a user-responsive climatic design approach to building skin, which is later applied in a design project and then evaluated.

Aksamija (2013), holds that a building skin has two main functions.

Firstly, it acts as a barrier that separates the building’s interior from the external environment. Secondly, it functions to create the image or impression of the building (Aksamija, 2013, p.2).

The action of building skin as a barrier between interior and exterior is its most fascinating function. In this way of thinking, this intermediate layer must adapt and interact with two kinds of forces: external forces such as local culture, context and environment, and internal forces, such as the building programme and its occupiers.

Alternatively, Gussa (2003) defines building skin as,

“an exterior layer mediating between the building and its environment. Not a neutral elevation, but rather an active, informed membrane; communicative and in communication. Rather than walls with holes, technical, interactive skins. Skins colonised by functional elements capable of housing installations and services; capable of receiving and transmitting energies; but also capable of supporting other incorporated layers; overlapping rather than adhesive.

Manipulated and/or temporary patches, eruptions, graphics or engravings; but also projected images. Colorful reversible motifs and virtual-digital-fantasies aimed at transforming the building into an authentic interface between individual and environment; and the façade, into an (inter)active screen, the frictional boundary between the building and a context which changes over time” (Gussa, et al., 2003, p. 555).

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Gussa’s definition of building skin is more conclusive and helpful, as it covers three main aspects that should be considered in the design process. These aspects are, firstly, the skin as mediating between the programme of building and its environment. Secondly, as a communicative layer which interfacing between the individual’s needs and environment. Finally, as a multi-layered intelligent medium of overlapped layers that allow it to receive energies as well as housing services (Gussa, et al., 2003).

Based on Gussa’s definition, the first two functions of a building skin are investigated in this chapter: the building skin as an intermediate barrier between the internal and external forces, and as a communicative layer between the individuals’ needs and environment.

From this definition, it is important to understand what the internal forces are, as well as the external forces acting on the skin and the area ‘in between’ to develop a strategy of interacting between those elements. Therefore, the following sections will explore the impact of advanced technology on users and therefore the building functions/ uses. This will be explored further through examples of how those factors impacted on the skin design process.

Impact of Technology on Users and Spaces In the early 2000s, the possibility for a new building function appeared because of the emergence of wireless networks. “This hub-and-card technology provided convenient connectivity for wireless laptops, and enthusiasts set about creating public wireless hotspots” (Mitchell, 2003, p. 157). This illustrates the immense importance of wireless technology which allow information workers to move freely from one location to another as required and desired. People have discovered that they just require a mobile phone or a laptop to operate effectively at their workplaces, trains or at home. Any place is now a potential workplace. These technologies changed the characteristics of the building users, as well as the spaces, from being tight to a certain location to become mobile and not limited by place or time (Mitchell, 2003).

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A T-Mobile USA advertisement in 2005 (fig 2.1) illustrates the wireless technology abilities to dematerialise the physical space into a more mobile digital world, removing the “limitation of geography” (Bullivant, 2005, p. 38) which leads to less dependence on being at a specific place or time.

This change of the user’s characteristic from being fixed to mobile has resulted in a break down of rigid, defined, specialised, functional spaces and instead a flexible use of space takes over. These flexible spaces allow for various functions, as merging activities becomes more efficient, in that a workplace can accommodate complex dynamic patterns of use (Mitchell, 2003, p. 154). The building skin then is required to be able to adopt to these changes and provide suitable internal conditions that reflect the current—changeable— Fig2.1. A recent T-mobile USA advertisement illustrates “your work force is mobile. Shouldn’t their offices be mobile too?”

use of the space at certain time.

In other words, the skin functioning in relation to providing suitable conditions for the spaces and users is unchanged. However, the development is that spaces and users are now more dynamic and the building skin should be able to adapt and become more dynamic to satisfy a similar but new purpose and enable change in the function of spaces.

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Fig.2.2 Night shot showing diamond pattern mesh skin

Evaluations of Programmatic Approaches to Skin Seattle Central Library Seattle Central Library project is a good example of how technology has changed the users’ characteristics, which accordingly would challenge the traditional understanding of building function. The library programme was based on deep, proactive, collaborative research.

Architects from OMA and their clients cooperatively visited libraries in Europe and the US to examine existing institutions and theorise about their own future. This extensive research led the architects to

Fig.2.3 Model showing building‟s skin and bones

visualize the flexible areas of the library such as ‘reading rooms’, central reference area as ‘mixing chamber’ and ‘living rooms’. These were set between five programmatic boxes established to serve the fixed needs of the project such as the administration office, book storage and staff areas. Such programmatic spaces were reconceived as cantilevered boxes in vertical stacks. The entire building is wrapped in a diamond shape mesh skin of glass panels, “much like a fishnet stocking stretched over a leg” (Hodge, 2006, p. 19), set into a matching steel grid that operates as glass curtain wall and as a part of the structural system (Hodge, 2006, p. 184) (see Figs 2.3, 2.4).

Fig.2.4 diagram showing the fixed 5 programatic boxes and the flexible areas of the library

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Schmidt opines that, Fig.2.5 Interior view illustrating the effect of the skin in the flexible areas of the library

“The built façade with glass fronts variously raked according to the need for the daylight and the urban structural context matches the collage of partially staggered stacked zones. The repeated piercing of the façade acquires a dynamic intensification by the rhombic bracing, which emphasises the shift inclination with great effect. […]

Whilst with the typical screening façade of modernity a static lattice exposes the physical and constructional circumstances, the logic of construction is here, in the truest sense of the world, inverted. The effect of the facets in the façade reinforces the collage-like character of the library and emphasises how the previous organisation of things has been abolished” (Schmidt, 2009, p. 13) (See Figs 2.6).

This explains the design concept of Seattle Library and how the building skin reflected changes in the type of functions required for a modern library. This skin design used the daylight as a design tool to enhance and provide qualities for the space. The design process in terms of Fig.2.6 South façade of the paper art museum with shutters closed

concept and functional organisation was complex and the skin design was effective in terms of relation to urban context and daylight.

However, the skin could have offered more by adopting and interacting with other climatic forces, such as solar exposure and wind which would have resulted in a reduction of building energy consumption.

In comparison, McQuaid describes how Shigeru Ban deals with the concept of a building skin (Fig 2.2 & 2.3), “the characteristic of skin is its ability to adapt” (McQuaid, 2006, p. 184). The skin of a building should adapt as well as the skin of humans and animals respond to the environment. As human skin changes its colour when exposed to sun, a

Fig.2.7 F South façade of the paper art museum with shutters open

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building’s skin can transform its colour, texture and even structure as it fluctuates from one phase to another (McQuaid, 2006, p. 184).

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Institute du Monde Arab, Paris Fig.2.8 image showing Institute du Monde Arab elevation

Another interesting and partially successful example is the Institute du Monde Arab in Paris. The glass southwest façade of Jean Nouvel’s land mark building, built in 1987, includes a series of 240 photosensitive metal apertures (devices) that open and close automatically to modulate daylight and solar heat gain to the building. The enclosed cavity of the apertures themselves act as an effective buffer to reduce conducted heat loads (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 30) (fig 2.8).

The architect’s aim was to increase the building energy efficiency performance by dynamically controlling the heat gain, introduced to the building through the envelope (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014). This leads to reduction in the energy demand of the building while maintaining other demands on the façade, such as daylight and views, albeit restricted by the apertures and their timed openings (fig 2.9, 2.10).

There is no doubt that Jean Nouvel’s approach to skin there was unique, futuristic, and inspiring. This experiment opened a new realm of architecture where a building skin can transform and change based on dynamic weather inputs, leading to a reduction of energy consumption. Unfortunately, the responsive elements’ maintenance proved too difficult and expensive; hence the responsive, performative

Fig.2.9 drawing showing the open and close combination of the panel.

aspect of the façade was abandoned a few years after the building opened (Meagher, 2014). This highlights significant issues that arise from using a complicated mechanisms and how fast technology ages.

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Fig.210 Image showing the interior effect of the shutters and the use of the space

Furthermore, there is another important aspect that needs attention: suitability to site location and climate. In an interview for this research, Alja Aksamija, Professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA, stated that the biggest problem for this particular building was its location and the climate. The climate in Paris is only sunny for a few months per year and generally cloudy and rainy most of year. Therefore, this project would be more suitable in a sunnier climate, such as in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, due to the high solar radiation of those areas. In this sense, a highly adaptive faรงade design that responds to solar radiation by opening and closing mechanism depending on the amount of sun would be more appropriate.

This highlights the importance of considering the specifics of site location and climatic factors as key design factors that should shape the building design if more accurately detected and interpreted.

However, as previously discussed, the building uses and users also provide key design factors. The next chapter further investigates the considerations for a user-orientated climatic approach to designing building skin.

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Evaluation of Existing Design Strategies and Climate This chapter investigates key design strategies for a climatic design approach to building skin.From the skin definition established previously, this chapter first examines building skin interaction with climatic factors acting on the building, to then develop a design strategy which is applied and evaluated in the Application Chapter.

A building skin has a major impact on building energy budgets and occupant comfort more than any other system. It should fulfil many functions such as outside views, support its own dead-load weight, resist wind-load, permit natural daylight inside, block excess heat gain, resist water and air penetration, and protect occupants from noise and extreme temperature (Aksamija, 2017). These are the first key application and evaluation criteria.

Following this, the climate, physical characteristics of a building’s location, building orientation, programme requirements, occupants’ comfort expectations and site constrains comprise the second of set key factors to consider when designing sustainable high-performance building’ skins that reduce the building energy consumption and fulfil above-mentioned functions.

But what opportunities are there to employ a dual climate-user responsive design approach? Via expert interview and her literature contributions, Professor Aksamija made some interesting suggestions.

“High-performance sustainable facades can be defined as exterior enclosures that use the least possible amount of energy to maintain a comfortable interior environment, which promotes the health and productivity of building’s occupants. This means that sustainable facades are not simply barriers between interior and exterior; rather they are building systems that create comfortable spaces by actively responding to the building’s external environment, and significantly reduce building energy consumption” (Aksamija, 2013, p. 2).

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Fig.3.1 Koppen Climate Classification System

This highlights the potential opportunities that a climatic approach to design a sustainable building skin can offer, from providing comfort to the building’s users, responding to climatic change and reduce building’s energy consumption. This raises a question: what are the considerations that impact on a design strategy for a smart skin?

Several methods and systems were established to characterise the temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall as categories of climatic groups for geographic areas. The Koppen Climate Classification System was one of the first methods to categorise different climates for the whole world (Fig.3.1). However, due to its complexity, it became very difficult for designers to use. A simpler classification system was developed by the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) for the USA, dividing the country into 8 main categories based on temperature zones and 3 zones based on humidity levels (Aksamija, 2013, p. 6). The 8 climate zones range from very hot to subarctic. Although this classification system was only developed for the US, its methodology could be applied for any other location to achieve a general climate-based design strategy. In this classification system there are three main climate types: heating-dominated climates, cooling-dominated climates and mixed climates. Accordingly, each of these types require a different strategy to design building skins for each zone (Aksamija, 2013, p. 7).

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The building skin in predominantly colder climates requires a design strategy for the collection and storage of solar heat in the wall’s mass, preservation of heat within the building through improved insulation.

Buildings in predominately hotter climates require a strategy for the protection from the direct solar radiation through self-shading methods or shading devices, protection from solar heat gained through the facade, use of natural ventilation where environmental characteristics and building function permit, and use of natural light sources while minimising solar heat gain through use of shading devices (Aksamija, 2013, p. 10). For buildings in mixed climates, the strategy is more challenging, as they require protection from direct solar radiation during warm seasons and solar collection during cold seasons. This requires increased glazed areas within the façade to maximise the use of natural light.

Process for a Climatic Design Approach The process to design building skin based on climatic approach could be achieved through the following steps: 1. Identify the location and climate zone to determine the environmental and climatic factors acting on the building envelope.

2. Consider the location reduce and eliminate negative environmental factors impact on the building, by using passive systems such as orientation of the building and natural ventilation to reduce the building energy consumption.

3. Identify target variables such as energy-saving levels, thermal conductance, water consumption, lifecycle costs, embodied energy, etc.

4. Identify façade type based on programme requirements, spatial organisation and client requirements and desired astatic of the building. Characteristics of the materials and components used in the design should be considered in order to achieve the energy saving level required.

5. Investigate smart materials and possible active systems which increase the energy efficiency of the building and possible achieve net zero energy component.

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The remainder of the research concentrated on, a) examination of existing systems to fulfil the above through a critical analysis of specific applications on building projects, b) analysis of the function of skin to fulfil its functions and aspirations

Critical examination of existing systems In the following section, several projects were analysed that explored the skin concept as a mechanism to interact with the local environment. The projects selected represent different climate zones such as arid and mixed climate, as well as different solutions and technologies to how the skin of the building interacts with the climatic forces. The section starts with a project I participated in the design at LCE Architects. Although it is not built or realised as completely as the examples that follow, this project was the turning point in my understanding of the climatic approach to design and is important to highlight the lessons learnt for future development.

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Fig.3.2 Renderd image showing the building skin at night time

Libya Land Registry Authority Building Development Project LCE Architects were appointed in 2008 by the Libyan Land Registry Authority (LLRA) Estates department to design a national model for new regional offices with four variations of façade treatment relative to their environment type of Urban, Coastal, Mountain and Desert. While as a team we developed the whole climatic design strategy and specific applications, I was responsible for designing the Desert condition

Fig.3.3 Daiagram showing the double-layer skin

building skin. The approach to that design was to create a doublelayer skin to respond to its hot climate in desert context and provide a distinctive character relating to its use and location. (Fig.3.3) The building’s structure is formed from a simple concrete frame with block and in-situ concrete in-fill (Fig.3.4). A double-height public space acted as the main focal point of the project, public front of house on

Fig.3.4 Daiagram showing the solid volume

the ground floor, and office spaces and back-of-house on the first floor.

The cladding material is then wrapped over this solid box, like a skin of perforated and textured metal panels that reflect the natural colours and landscape of the desert region (Fig.3.5). At certain strategic points along the elevation, this skin was pulled back to reveal windows or door openings, giving the facade depth and revealing the solidity of the building behind. The air flow between the building envelope and the second skin reduces the solar gain into the internal space (for more information about the project refer to Appendix 2).

Fig.3.5 Daiagram showing the skin layer

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The building skin was developed through two sets of diagrams; the first set illustrated the functional development of the perforated cladding material. The building elevations were simplified down into a series of basic rectangles and unwrapped onto the page (Fig 3.6). The second set Fig.3.6 the first set illustrated the functional development of the perforated cladding material.

of diagrams shows the aesthetic development of the cladding, using an image of Libya—in this case Garama Ruins, Germa. (Fig 3.7)

The 1st Diagram show façade penetrations. The white areas represent window opening, doors etc.

The 2nd Diagram looks at light intensity on the different elevations. The south and west elevations have the strongest light intensity (shown by the white hotspots), whilst the north and east are darker and more shaded.

The 3rd Diagram looks in a similar way at heat intensity on the different elevations. Again, the south and west facades gain the most heat, particularly by the end of the day.

The 4th Diagram show a gradient pallet of perforations with darker end being more open in terms of the number of perforations and the lighter end being more solid. Thus, the more shaded facades would have a greater number of perforations within the cladding to allow light and ventilation to penetrate, whilst the elevations with most direct sunlight would have fewer perforations.

The 6th & 7th Diagrams then show this perforated gradient mapped to the elevations depending upon the light and heat intensity explored earlier and location of openings.

Finally, these are merged together to help from the final unwrapped elevations of the building.

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1.0 design concept 1.0 design concept

Fig.3.7 The diagrams show the development of the cladding, using an image of Garama Ruins, Germa. The image is pixelated and merged with a traditional Arabic pattern before being superimposed over the elevation.

Once the elevations’ orientation and window openings have been considered, this then helps to form the finished facade. libyan land registry authorities

stage c report

This project was a turning point on my thinking of skin, as it was

page 11

valuable as an experiment with the idea of a passive solution to respond to the local climate by using double-skin whilst creating a unique identity to the building appearance. On the other hand, the project lacked a defined location to develop the strategy based on site conditions, context and climatic forces acting onpage the11 libyanorientation, land registry authorities stage c report building. Also, although the double-layeredstage skinc report would reduce heat libyan land registry authorities page 11 gain and therefore building energy consumption, the perforated metal results in reducing the opportunity to see through, therefore reducing the users’ interaction with the environment. The project would have benefited from further development to work collaboratively with environmental, façade, and mechanical engineering consultants to test how much energy the skin could have saved. Computer simulations in this instance could have been very beneficial. Unfortunately, the project stopped due to the political situation in Libya, and the idea was not developed further. Yet it pointed to the importance of the climatic approach to skin design and the climatic site analysis, which will be developed further in the following section.

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Fig.3.8 North view to the towers

Elbahr Towers office building, Abu Dhabi, UAE Similarly, Aedas architects and Arup used the idea of double-layered skin to develop a building skin that was both efficient and iconic. The skin design relates to Islamic architecture to connect the building to its context and embodies a novel approach to reduce the effects of high temperatures and intense solar radiation that characterise the local environment. The innovative idea of developing an external movable shading system was inspired from studying the local Islamic concept of a Mashrabeiya, which is a form of a wooden lattice screen used for centuries in Islamic architecture for shading and privacy (Fortmeyer and Linn 2014).

A circular plan form was proposed for its efficiency of wall-to-floor area

Fig.3.9 Prespective plan showing the relation between the floor plan, the skygardens and the skin

and reduced amount of surface area. The overall form of the towers was optimized to complement the shading system (Armstrong , Andy; etc 2013, 60) (Fig.3.9).

The towers’ skin consists two layers: the first is curtainwall while the second is a dynamic Mashrabeiya. This second layer of the skin consists of over 1,000 individual semi-transparent (20% visible) singlelayer PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) coated with fiberglass moveable shading devices (umbrella-like) (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014).

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Fig.3.10 Diagram illustrating the skin response to the sun path

Each of these devices individually shifts position between fully open and closed in response to the sun’s path, allowing indirect sunlight to Main Components:

enter the building while blocking the strongest rays to prevent glare 1.

Actuator + Power & Control: cable connection back to the tower Strut Sleeves: penetrates the curtainwall & connects to the main structure Supporting cantilever Struts: hooks on the sleeves Star Pin Connection: receives the unitized Y-Arm ends Actuator Casing: protects the actuator Y-Structure Ring Hub: joins the Y-Arms and actuator together Y-Structure Sleeves: connects the Y-Arms to the Hub Y-Structure Arms: supports the whole mechanism Y-Mobile Tripod: drives and supports the fabric mesh frames Actuator Head Pin Connection: pins to the Mobile Tripod Stabilizer: takes the loads to the hub releasing the actuator shear forces Slider: allows the Mobile Tripod to travel along the Y-Arms Fabric Mesh Frame & Sub-Frame: supporting the fabric mesh Fabric Mesh

and heat gain (Fig.3.10-3.12). The whole system is controlled via the 2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Building Management System to create an intelligent skin, which improves the comfort and light in the spaces inside as well as reduce 7.

8.

9.

the need for artificial lighting and overall cooling loads by reducing 10.

11.

over 50% in solar gain, which results in a reduction of CO2 emissions 12.

13.

by 1,750 tonnes/year (Armstrong, et al., 2013). The design team 14.

expected the actuators, which cycle once-per-day to last more than 15 years while the motors should last more than 10 years before needing Above: Detail diagram of an individual shading device Opposite Left: Comparison of shading units fully closed (top) and fully open (bottom) Opposite Right: Façade viewed from the south with shading devices fully closed

replacement (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 180). (for more information

Fig.3.11 Detail Diagram of an individuale shading device

The tradition of tall buildings in the Middle East has relied upon designs typically coming from North America which generally do not address the radical climate differential. Many existing towers rely primarily on high-performance reflective curtain wall systems which utilized tinted glazing.

While this system may deliver acceptable results, it usually provides poor external views, lack of optimal daylighting, and introduces excessive glare to the exterior. Alternatively, fixed shading devices have been employed in some applications with positive effects, but are only optimized for one condition and can therefore never provide ideal results.

The “mashrabiya” at Al Bahar Towers comprises a series of transparent umbrella-like components that

Fig.3.12 Solar analysis diagram to the skin

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about the project refer to Appendix 2). open and close in response to the sun’s path. Each of the two towers comprises over 1,000 individual shading devices that are controlled via the Building Management System, creating an intelligent façade.

In one view, this project represents a successful approach to building skin design that is suitable for its context. The design process was driven by the protection from negative climatic forces, in this case

Each unit comprises a series of stretched PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) panels and is driven by a linear actuator that will progressively open and close once per day in response to a pre-programmed sequence that has been calculated to prevent direct sunlight from striking the façade and to limit direct solar gain to a maximum of 400 watts per linear meter.

The entire installation is protected by a variety of sensors that will open the units in the event of overcast conditions or high winds. The effects of this system are comprehensive: reduced glare, improved daylight

solar heat gain, by using a smart skin to achieve a novel design solution that links to the culture and enhance the building use of energy.

However, the design process did not take into consideration any other climatic factors such as wind and the considerably short life-span of the technology used for the skin to perform. This raises the question

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of how efficient the skin design is in relation the vast changes in technology. Perhaps a smarter material would provide a solution other than relying solely on mechanical elements.

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Fig.3.13 Aerial view to Beijing National Aquatics centre – Water Cube

Beijing National Aquatics centre – Water Cube The iconic National Aquatics centre in Beijing, known as the Water Cube, represents one of the best-realised examples of using fully integrated materials for designing intelligent skins by using ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene). The building was designed by PTW Architects and ARUP in a design competition from 2003. The design process had a clear objective to concentrate on the building skin and material selection. These objectives were lightweight, inexpensive, translucent, able to cover great span for building efficiency and condensation-free. These criteria narrowed down the available materials to four options: glass, polycarbonate, fiberglass and ETFE (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 168).

Whilst the obvious material was glass, it had to be rolled due to its heavy weight, and required a secondary framing system, which increases the building cost. Polycarbonate and fiberglass are expensive to mould to form bubble-like panels. Alternatively, ETFE weighs only 1% compared to glass for the same area, and is lower cost. ETFE as a material is resistant to ultra violet (UV) light degradation as well as atmospheric pollution (Aksamija, 2013, p. 122). The Cube project design used triple-ply configuration “pillows” with air pumped in between the layers to enhance the thermal performance. The concept of a “box of bubbles” was based on the natural structure concept of soap bubbles (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 166).

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Fig.3.14 the building under construction showing the main structure, secondary structure and the clamped pillows.

The building skin consists of 4,000 ETFE cladding elements called pillows, as the designer called it; some of these pillows are about 9m across. There are seven different sizes of pillows for the roof with 15 variations for the walls to create the random effect desired. Each pillow is manufactured form two or more layers of the impermeable ETFE fabric; each layer is about 0.2mm thickness. These layers are then heat-welded around the edges and inflated to a pressure range between 300-800 Pascal. These pillows then were machine-clamped to the metal carrier frame connected to the main steel structure, to make the ETFE more structurally durable and resilient to weather and human impacts. Different variations of patterns were considered prior construction to optimise the loads and the stress levels on the pillows (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 170) (Fig3.14-3.15).

The air trapped between the layers of each pillow crated a cavity, which could be mechanically vented by pulling the hot air out into the swimming pool to heat it during winter months and exhaust hot air out through the roof during summer months. (for more information about the project refer to Appendix 2) Analysis showed that the skin traps nearly 20% of the solar heat which can be used to heat the space inside. The translucent nature of the

Fig.3.15 diagram showing the layers of each Pillow, and fixing detail

ETFE results on further 55% saving of the building consumption of electric lighting energy. (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 173) This project is an excellent example of how smart material research results in a unique solution to structure and environmental control to achieve project goals. The Water Cube skin allows for a reduction to heat gain, but also provides a ventilation strategy for different seasons that contributes to the overall building ventilation strategy. In this sense, the Water Cube skin as described by Schepers (2014) as a “living part of the building� (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 174).

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Evaluation of Emerging Materials and Technologies The previous examples highlighted the importance of smart materials and emerging technologies research as integral to the design process.

Architecture as a material practice is rapidly developing through the increasing number of complicated geometrical designs accomplished by architects today, as well as through the growing interest in a built environment which is becoming more diverse than it used to be in the period of mass production and standardisation of building systems (Menges, 2006, p. 70). As Menges describes, digital manufacturing and its increased affordability resolved the contradictory ambition of differentiation and economy of designers and manufacturers “from a futuristic goal to a realistic approach” (Menges, 2006, p. 71) McLennan, a physicist and proponent of Green Building, describes the ideal of climate-responsive skin as a “synthetic ecological subsystem adapted to the particular circumstances and the changing climatic conditions of its location, capable of generating the resources required for operation (water, heat, electrical energy) itself.” The result, he suggests, “should not produce any harmful emissions, their wastes products should be fully recycled, and not only should it not cause damage to the local ecosystem, but it should positively influence and strengthen it” (McLennan in Klooster, 2009, p. 116). This explanation highlights the optimal solution and establishes a target to be achieved.

A smart skin that changes in response to changing climate which provides comfort without using energy or harmful impact (Ibrahim, 2016).

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Fig 3.16. Sun exposure diagram used to examine the impact of sun exposure on each panel

Motion without Motor An alternative method to create a smart skin by using thermobimetals, introduced by Doris Sung in a research and installation pavilion called “Bloom” in Los Angeles. In addition, Menges and Reichert undertook design research called “HygroScope: Meteorosensitive Morphology,” an installation in Pompidou Centre in Paris. It used wood’s hygroscopic behaviour to develop a climate-responsive architectural system without any mechanical components (Menges, 2012).

Sung clarified in a TED Talk that, "we can't do net-zero energy just by making mechanical systems more efficient." Instead, Sung takes our natural biological defences as a model. "What I propose is that our building skins should be more similar to human skin, and by doing so can be much more dynamic and responsive" (Anderson, 2012). That can be achieved by exploring new smart materials in architecture by

Fig 3.17. the curling effect of the thermobiometal material used for Bloom installation, Los Angeles.

using thermobimetals.

Thermobimetal is basically two sheets of metal laminated together; in the bloom pavilion a manganese nickel alloy on the inner surface and a darker manganese iron on the outer surface, each with different thermal coefficients of expansion. The laminated metal sheet bends and curls as the temperature changes between 21ºC up to of 204ºC (Sung, 2012, p. 5).

Bloom is an interactive smart skin that dynamically opens in high ambient temperatures or direct sunlight (Fig. 3.16-3.18). However, from an energy perspective bloom is a passive system, which requires no artificial source of energy to function. The system is designed to allow the release of hot air from below, or to physically close to shield the underside from unwanted solar gain. Sung stated that Bloom’s materials would properly last for 5 years before its performance degrades, but she believes that further research will uncover materials

Fig 3.18. Diagram showing the panels’ different curling effect in response to sun exposure.

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that perform similarly for a longer life-span (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, pp. 81-86). (Ibrahim, 2016). (for more information about the project refer to Appendix 2).

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Fig 3.19. Showing the open and close of the installation elements in response to change in humidity levels.

The “HygroScope: Meteorosensitive Morphology” installation in Paris was an experiment in climate responsive architectural systems without any mechanical systems. Wood has a particularly striking attribute in its’ hygroscopic characteristics: the ability to attract water molecules from the surrounding environment (Ibrahim, 2016). In the process of adsorption and desorption of moisture, the material changes physically. The increase or decrease of water absorbed changes the distance between the micro fibrils in the wood cell tissue, resulting in a significant increase or decrease in overall dimension (Menges, 2012) (Fig 3.20). Given the right design, this dimensional change can be employed to trigger the shape-change of a responsive element (Menges, 2012). Menges and Reichert were inspired by the biology of plants and how they employ hygroscopic actuation to generate motion in response to changes in the environment, as for example conifer cones (Fig 3.21). If applied to architecture, it could allow for “motion without motors” (Menges, 2015, p. 68).

Fig 3.21. The conifer cone is a dead plant organ but its material is programmed to perform a motion based on a change of an environmental condition.

Similar to thermobimetals, there are some limitations in panel size and Fig 3.20. Showing the impact of humidity level change to the opening and closing movement of the composite material.

the manufacturing process. But with the advancement of fabrication process, and the use of design technologies such as grasshopper and Rhino software, these emerging technologies are rich grounds for development with a very promising future.

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Chapter Conclusion To conclude, this chapter investigated the design strategies for a climatic design approach for building skins. It identified many different climatic zones and more refined and appropriate design strategies that need to be considered of each climate zone for skins to be considered responsive. A process of design for a smart skin was drawn through examining various projects offering different, but successful design solutions for different climatic zones. Yet each had idiosyncratic drawbacks, from material-system lifespans to panel size limitations.

However, the importance of smart material was clearly demonstrated as a centrally-important input into climatic-responsive design processes.

This overall strategy was then examined and evaluated, which is described through the next chapter via an experimental project that applied the strategy.

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Application Introduction This chapter is the application part of the research, where the main objective is testing and experimenting with the process developed through the research in the previous chapters. It aims to respond to the research problem by evaluating the climatic approach to skin design To recap, the proposed climatic approach for skin design is as follows: 1. Identify the location and climate zone to determine the environmental and climatic factors acting on the building envelope.

2. Consider the location and site to reduce or eliminate negative impact of environmental factors on the building by first using passive systems, such as orientation and massing of the building and natural ventilation to reduce building energy consumption and respond to the context.

3. Identify target variables such as energy-saving levels, thermal conductance, water consumption, lifecycle costs, embodied energy, etc.

4. Identify a façade type based on programme requirements, spatial organisation, client requirements and desired aesthetic of the building. Characteristics of the materials and components used in the design should be considered to achieve the target variables, i.e., energy saving level required.

5. Investigate currently available smart materials and potential intelligent systems based on the above which increase the energy efficiency of the building and possible achieve net zero energy component, including those in development or theoretically feasible.

The main purpose is to determine the validity of this process to develop a climatic approach to design a building skin that is a) responsive to the users’ needs, and b) evaluates and responds to climatic factors.

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The project used to experiment with the process is the D6 final design Fig.4.1 view for I-Crossing Digital Media Hub, (D6 final design project).

The project was an opportunity to test the skin's design process developed through this research

project submitted in January 2018. Although the project design was not developed solely for this thesis, the research carried out in this thesis and the resulting process and outcomes has helped approach the design of this project. The D6 project was the perfect opportunity to test this process. The project design was supported with cultural, technological and architectural practice management reports that were carried out during the course, which highlighted the depth of studies and other factors that helped in developing the project (Fig.4.1-4.2).

However, the focus here is in illustrating the climatic approach process for designing the building skin and to examine and assess the process.

This should enrich the research and provide a more significant and worthwhile outcome to the whole thesis.

The project was a Digital Media Hub for I-Crossing, a digital marketing company based in Brighton. The site selected was the redundant Black Rock site in east Brighton on the seafront adjoining Brighton Marina.

The process starts by Identifying the location and climate zone to determine the Key environmental variables acting on the building’s envelope such as sun exposure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction and cloud coverage (Ibrahim,2017). To carry on this analysis, I experimented and developed a computational design 'definition' to visualise the data collected from Gatwick airport weather station using Grasshopper, a graphical algorithm editor for Rhino's 3D modelling program, and Ladybug plugins for Grasshopper, a 3D computer aided design modelling tools designed to support and host validated environmental design simulation engines (Roudsari, 2017).

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Fig.4.2 Aerial view for I-Crossing Digital Media Hub, (D6 final design project) showing the building in context.

This stage was followed by building massing experimentation, considering the orientation of the building to reduce and/or eliminate negative environmental factors acting on the building. By employing the environmental data, the computational design script was developed further to carry on a solar heat gain simulation to test the massing efficiency, which was then used to develop massing that it is passively reducing the building energy consumption.

Next was identifying the faรงade type based on programme requirements. As well as, investigate using smart materials for the building skin such as ETFE pillows active systems to increase the energy efficiency of the building and potentially achieve net zero energy component. In this part, I will illustrate how the use of smart material deals with issues such as heat gain, ventilation and energy production.

The last stage was to evaluate/assess the results of the design process in order to validate the climatic approach to skin design.

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Site Climatic Analysis In this part the prevailing climate of Brighton was analysed to develop a better understanding of the climatic forces acting on the building. (For more information about the grasshopper definition used to visualise this analysis refer to Appendix C)

COLD

WARM

COLD

HOT

Diagram 4.3 shows the temperature range for Brighton. It shows that Brighton’s temperature is majority cold with the exception from the period of May to September where the weather is considerably warm, during which a high temperature period in summer can reach up to 30˚.

High temperature period has to be considered in the design proposal to meet the building regulations approved document Part L2A to limit the effects of heat gains during this period. (HM Government, 2016, p. 17) (Ibrahim, 2017) Majourty Humid

Resonable low humidity

Diagram 4.4 shows that the humidity range over the year.

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Overcast

Clear

Broken/ Scattered

Diagram 4.5 Shows that the cloud coverage varies considerably during the year, from overcast in winter and scattered, broken from April to October and some clear periods in May to September.

Diagram 4.6 Over the whole year, the wind is primarily coming from the south-west reaching the speed of 17.5m/s. To achieve a better understanding of wind behaviour on the site, the analysis was undertaken on a seasonal basis rather than on a full year. Also, it is important to understand the wind in comparison with temperature to understand if the wind has negative, positive or nil impact on the building.

The highest wind speed is in autumn, coming from the South, South-west and North reaching 17.5m/s while temperature reaches 19Ëš.

In the summer, wind is coming from South-west and North, helping to reduce the high temperature of 30Ëš. (Ibrahim, 2017)

From the above analysis, Brighton can be identified as a mixed climate which requires a strategy for protection from direct solar radiation during warm seasons and solar collection during cold seasons as well as maximising the use of natural light through increased glazed areas within the façade.

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Massing Analysis From the above analysis, a computational script was developed using Grasshopper and Ladybug plugin to examine the solar impact on the building to develop a building massing that reduces the building heat gain. This is a different approach to conventional methods, which have traditionally concentrated on the building design and massing first, only applying computational design methods once massing and apertures, fenestration and any shading have been designed conceptually, to then tweak aperture, fenestration, and/or shading design. The first part of this analysis is to apply the computational algorithm on a simple box to illustrate the heat impact on its elevations.

This was followed by developing, manipulating and further testing the massing to achieve improved results by experimenting with massing sizes and orientations.

Diagram 4.7 Illustrates the building sun exposure in spring, as the sun is high the diagram indicates high solar intensity on the roof, East, South and West elevations.

Diagram 4.8 Illustrates the step following from testing on a box is to break down the mass into smaller buildings to allow for better lighting to get into the ground floor for public space activities as well as increasing the building use efficiency and allowing for more east and west elevations. (Ibrahim, 2017) 2018- Ahmed Gamal Ibrahim

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Diagram 4.9 illustrates that by rotating the buildings toward the South the building massing allows for a reduction to the North elevation and allowing for more East and West exposure.

It opens the building towards the sea view and creates connection between the public spaces.

But yet the South West and South East elevation still have a considerably high solar exposure.

(Ibrahim, 2017)

Diagram 5.8 showing that By shifting the roof towards the south the massing then could provide self-shading to the facade to protect the building from solar gain in summer and allow for light and heat in winter.

Diagram 4.10 illustrates the massing solar heat gain during summer which is showing a reduction of heat exposure on the elevations facing south.

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Diagram 4.11 illustrates the sun exposure on the developed massing indicating that the elevations facing South have full exposure during winter whilst solar exposure was reduced in summer. The elevations facing North show some East and West sun exposure resulting from the rotation.

INTEGRATED PHOTOVOLTAICS ON THE ROOF

N

E

PERFORMANT SKIN TO PROVIDE SOLAR CONTROL

THE BUILDING SHAPE PROVIDES SELF SHADED SURFACES TO REDUCE THE HEAT GAIN

W

TREES TO PROVIDE SHADE AND REDUCE HEAT GAIN

S

Diagram 4.12 concludes the analysis phase and suggests a sustainable strategy for the building. As the roof is constantly in high-exposure, it will be suitable for photovoltaics as a source of renewable energy. Although the massing provides self-shading for the building, further enhancements to building performance could be achieved by using an interactive skin.

Landscaping will help shade the areas between buildings which will be used as public spaces and main entrances to the building. (Ibrahim, 2017)

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At this stage of the design process, an analysis of the climatic factors that would impact on the building was carried out to define the climatic zone and identify the important factors acting on the building based on their effects on key variables.

This was followed by an analysis of the impact of the factors, such as solar gain on the development of building massing. The massing was then iteratively developed in a process of integrating the building requirements to enable its contribution to the local community, as well as reducing the solar gain on the building. This highlights the importance of considering the dual, skin-environment behaviour at early stages of design. In this case, through a better understanding of building orientation and climate, the building massing was developed through a continuous, iterative testing and adjustment process; more specifically, by breaking down the building massing, rotating and shifting the roof, the negative climatic factors acting on the building were reduced.

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Façade Type and Smart Materials In this part of the design process the building skin is investigated in relation to the spatial requirements and skin materials and characteristics. In addition, Brighton and Hove Council planning authority encourages any development on the site to take advantage of the sea views and natural lighting (BHCC, 2001, p. 3).

Considering the site location at the seafront and the flexible nature of how the digital media hub should operate, the objectives of the material selection for the building skin provide a metric that the building is transparent to allow light in and views out. More specifically, the skin should be a material that could create a system which is adaptive to climatic change to provide a comfortable internal environment.

Traditionally, glass has been an obvious material option used for office building façades.

However, it is a heavy and energy-expensive material and to provide adequate solar shading, it will require additional devices or a secondary skin. Acrylic or polycarbonate materials have been used in certain skin applications but anecdotal evidence would suggest they are ineffective judging by their deterioration over time and subsequent replacement in places like bus shelters and other semi-permanent buildings. In contrast, ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) weighs only 1% of glass, lower in cost, low-maintenance and recyclable. ETFE materials will not discolour or structurally weaken over time, and breakage is difficult. It is resistant to ultra violet (UV) light degradation as well as atmospheric pollution due to low coefficient of friction of its surface; dust or dirt will not adhere to its surface. Although ETFE will soften and fail in temperatures above 200⁰—not the case if used in Brighton (Aksamija, 2013, p. 123).

Fig. 4.13 table illustrating the comparison between the glass and ETFE properties.

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Construction ETFE can be designed and manufactured in single-ply sheets, double or triple-ply to address different use conditions. For this project, a triple-ply configuration of ‘pillows’ or ‘cushions’ with air pumped in between the layers is proposed to enhance the skin’s thermal performance, as the trapped air works as insulation (Aksamija, 2013, p. 123).

Single-ply would not provide adequate thermal insulation.

Single sheet-ply

Double ply

Triple-ply or Multi layered ply

Because ETFE is not a fabric, it cannot be used as a self-supporting tensile structure (Aksamija, 2013, p. 123). Instead it is produced into sheets, with a density of 1.012 oz/in3 and about 0.2 mm thickness (Birdair, N.D.). To form the cushions each one of these cushions are manufactured from two or more layers of the impermeable sheet.

These layers are then heat-welded around the edges and inflated to pressure ranges between 300 and 800 Pascal. These cushions then are machine-clamped to a secondary aluminum structure system for support them and increase resilience to both weather and human impacts (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 172) (Fig.4.14).

Skin, ETFE pillows

Secondry frame

Concrete slabs

Main structure steel frame

Fig. 4.14 Diagram illustrating the skin layers, main and secondery structure

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MAIN STRUCTURE STEEL FRAME

CONCRETE SLABS

SECONDRY FRAME

SKIN, ETFE PILLOWS

AUDIOTERIUM MASSING

OFFICES MASSING

Fig. 4.15 Diagram illustrating the skin layers, main and secondery structure

COLLABRATIVE OFFICE SPACE MASS

Transparency and Thermal Performance Typically, ETFE is a transparent material, but depending on the orientation and the solar gain required, it can be used in different colours to reduce the U-value. As per examples mentioned previously, ETFE with only 20% transparency was used in El Bahr towers, whereas in the Water Cube, different shades of blue were used to reduce the U-value of the skin. Also, printed frits on the exterior layer and an intermediate layer of a three-ply system can be used to reduce solar heat gain.

By controlling and shifting the air pressure within each pillow, the intermediate layer position moves towards the exterior layer to achieve a denser frit pattern to provide greater shading or it can be pulled back from the exterior layer to allow for more daylight to pass through the patterns and enter the interior space. Using the solar heat gain diagrams on the building façade, different types of cushions can be established to block only the summertime sun while allowing the winter sun into the building and passively heat the building (Ibrahim, 2017). Similarly, different frit densities could be optimised for the different facades. For example, the north façade’s pillows should not have any frits while the south façade should have denser patterns, both of which could be variable depending on the time and temperature (Fig 4.16).

The computer simulations carried on the Water Cube indicated that fritting patterns could achieve shading coefficient of 0.2 in summer and ranging from 0.3 to 0.35 in winter, results on 55% saving of the building consumption of electric lighting energy (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, pp. 171-173).

Exterior membrane of triple-ply ETFE cushion with frit pattern

Interior membrane of triple-ply ETFE cushion

Intermediate membrane with frit pattern

Exterior membrane of triple-ply ETFE cushion with frit pattern

Interior membrane of triple-ply ETFE cushion

Intermediate membrane with frit pattern

Fig. 4.16 Diagram illustrating the skin mechanism to reduce the heat gain by using fritting. The angle of facade acts as a natural solar shade to to reduce the building heat gain. Also the ETFE skin allows reducing the heat gain further and it can vent out the hot air out of the building.

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Ventilation Strategy The ventilation strategy took advantage of an atrium as well as ground-source heat pump. The skin is also playing an important role in the ventilation strategy, as the air trapped between the layers of each ETFE cushion created a cavity. This cavity could be mechanically vented by pulling hot air trapped in the cushions into the building to heat the space inside during winter months. In sumertimes, the hot air can be vented out of the building (Fig 4.17-4.18).

Atrium vents closed to allow heat to be retained within public spaces.

MVHR cleans existing warm air from office space mixing with fresh air to recirculate back to spaces.

Lower angle winter sun and ETFE cushions allow more heat gain to office space in winter time.

Ground source heat pump uses more stable ground/ sea temperature to help heat spaces in winter time.

Fig. 4.17 Diagram illustrating the ventilation strategy for winter time.

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Summer time ventilation atrium roof vents opend to allow natural chimney effect drawing heat from office spaces Natural ventilation of office spaces during summer time

Triple skin of ETFE cushions allows external surface to reflect external heat from sun

Ground source heat pump takes cooling from sea water which is then used to pump cool air through office floor plate.

Fig. 4.18 Diagram illustrating the ventilation strategy for summer time.

Producing Energy

Fig. 4.19 showing the SolarNext AG flexible PV technology

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Conclusion The Black Rock design project was developed to test and evaluate the process of designing a smart building skin with a climate-responsive design approach, where the skin design is considered from the beginning of the design process. The process benefitted from a thorough understanding of the climatic forces acting on the building in its specific location throughout the year. A passive design approach employing basic considerations such as the building orientation, shape and configuration achieved worthwhile results in reducing the negative climatic factors acting on the building.

Understanding the building nature, user’s requirements and the building relation to its context plays an important role in selecting and assessing the skin behaviour and material selection. However, it has been shown that smart materials can provide a solution to achieve a skin smarter than conventional glazing, bringing greater benefit to occupant comfort and building energy efficiency. In this project, ETFE pillow skins allowed for the required transparency for sea views whilst allowing for reduction of heat gain, as well as providing an improved ventilation strategy whilst producing renewable energy for the building and occupants. In other words, the climatic approach to smart skin design not only reduced the building energy consumption but also provided added benefit through the production energy to the building from a sustainable, renewable source.

However, as mentioned in the introduction, the scope of the project was limited to the factors identified. The method did not evaluate cost, lifecycle, embodied energy, end-user value or intangible characteristics. It was also limited geographically to the southeast coast of England.

Therefore, the method could benefit from future work and examination of the environmental impact and users’ comfort within the building after incorporated the ETFE smart system which would add value to the feedback process for the current and future projects. The process provided a mechanism to achieve the set goals of the project, but what is really important to highlight is the use of computational design tools that allowed for a continuous testing to the findings of each stage of the process.

These feedback output becomes an input for the next stage and sometimes it could leads to revise a previous step. The process in this manner is a continuous loop rather than a liner process.

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SMART MATERIAL

SMART MATERIAL

PHYSICAL VARIABLES

SITE/ CONTEXT CONDITIONS

BUILDING USE

BUILDING USE

ENVIRONMENT CONDITIONS

HUMAN VARIABLES

TECHNOLOGY IT/ CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY

Fig5.1 Diagram illustrating the research area of interest.

COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

Evaluation and Conclusion The dissertation has investigated the concept of skin in architecture, highlighting the need for a new approach to design a building’ skin that fulfills the skin’s main functions. It must as a barrier between the interior and exterior, provide views and protection, and offer a stronger relationship between building’s users, environment, culture, technology and appearance, beyond working with the skin as a blank canvas.

From this perspective, the research answered two main questions.

First, it has shown how current and previous approaches to building skins and envelopes could be developed to better respond to changing climates and user needs. Second, it has demonstrated how the building envelope can become more than just a barrier from the elements and become a living part of the building that connects and enhances communication between the building’s uses, its’ users, and its environment.

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Through the research, the function of a building skin was redefined to perform as a link between the internal requirements and climatic forces acting on the building, in addition to its appearance. This definition was a main driver of the research. Firstly, the impact of advanced technology on the understanding of building programme and users’ behaviour was investigated. As building users became mobile— not fixed to a certain space or time, therefore building a programme became more flexible. This dismantled the rigid functions into multiactivity spaces where the boundary between specific spaces for single uses and collaborative spaces became blurred. From this perspective, a building skin should be able to adapt to changes in the building programme.

Secondly, building skin has a major impact on a building’s energy performance, as it has a direct impact on heating, cooling, lighting and other parameters that consume energy in a typical building. Three design strategies for skin design based on the three main climate zones were identified: cold, hot and mixed climates.

Cold climates require a strategy for: • Maximising collection and storage of solar heat • Preservation of heat within the building through improved insulation.

Hot climates require a strategy for: • Protection from direct solar radiation and heat gained through the facade, • Use of natural ventilation, where building functions permit • Use of natural light sources while minimising solar heat gain Mixed climate requires a strategy for: • Protection from direct solar radiation during warm seasons • Solar heat gain/collection during cold seasons.

• Maximise the use of natural light

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Understanding this classification resulted in the development of a climatic approach for skin design. This process is as followings: 1. Identify the location and climate zone to determine the environmental and climatic factors acting on the building envelope.

2. Consider the location and site to reduce or eliminate negative impact of environmental factors on the building by first using passive systems, such as orientation and massing of the building and natural ventilation to reduce building energy consumption and respond to the context.

3. Identify target variables such as energy-saving levels, thermal conductance, water consumption, lifecycle costs, embodied energy, etc.

4. Identify a façade type based on programme requirements, spatial organisation, client requirements and desired aesthetic of the building. Characteristics of the materials and components used in the design should be considered to achieve the target variables, i.e., energy saving level required.

5. Investigate currently available smart materials and potential intelligent systems based on the above which increase the energy efficiency of the building and possible achieve net zero energy component, including those in development or theoretically feasible.

This process works in parallel with: • Developing an evaluation protocol based on the desired outcomes and target variables above.

• Evaluating and then assessing the results according to the evaluation protocol.

• Feeding-back the evaluation findings into the design process

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The projects explored in chapter three have illustrated different skin solutions for different climatic zones. It highlighted the potential and importance of emerging materials for skin design to reduce building energy consumption while playing a significant role in facilitating the building’s identity.

Emerging materials can be considered as the future of interactive skins; they are solving many mechanical problems of the present mechanical skins. Whilst smart materials have some manufacturing limitations, with continuing advances in research and experimental design, that smart materials can play a meaningful role in the introduction of a different type of architecture.

In the application part of the research, the proposed process was tested and evaluated. As it validated the process in achieving the set goals of the project, it also highlighted the importance of a feedback process. Using computational design methods should go in parallel with the design process for designing building skin and continuously feed into the design process at different stages. The climatic approach to skin design in this manner is a continuous loop process rather than a linear process that benefits from testing the impact of the different variables acting on the building and using them to enhance the building design.

In Conclusion, the climatic computational design approach to skin design is a flexible process that changes and adapts according to the circumstances and analyses of the internal and external forces acting on the building in its particular location. This process can be developed further through exploring climatic factors in other locations, impacts of the building programme and requirements, variations of other smart materials with computational design and fabrication technologies. Future research in computational design would add value for exploring new design methods as well as developing testing mechanisms that would allow for enhancing the evaluation and feedback process. While future research in smart materials would reduce further the building energy consumption by enabling the skin components to move without motors and could also harvest energy to achieve zero energy consumption building.

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Appendices Appendix A: Human Skin

Appendix B: Selected Projects' Sheet

Appendix C: Application Projects Additional Information

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Appendix A: Human Skin

Fig A.1 The extend of human thermal comfort factors The human body operates at 37°C in order to enable the various chemical operations that are necessary to sustain life. One of the most important chemical operations is the process of converting the food consumed into a form of energy that muscles can then use to do any physical work. This constant body temperature can only be sustained through regular metabolism, which is a form of low energy that is only 20% efficient and the remaining 80% of energy must be dissipated to the immediate environment around the body. When the outside temperature is higher than the body temperature, heat loss is increased, through evaporative cooling process, which is made possible by sweat glands releasing water onto the surface of the skin. On contrast when the outside temperature drops below the body temperature, physical activity may be required to increase the metabolic rate and the rate of heat production. (Drake, 2007, p. 8) Generally the body has the ability to adjust heat loss by redirecting the blood flow toward or away from the skin, without any effort being required through a process known as conductance adjustment.

This keeps the body comfortable within a range of temperature that is slightly higher or lower than the body temperature. (Drake, 2007, p. 9)

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Appendix B: Selected Projects' Sheet

Fig.B.1 Night shot showing diamond pattern mesh skin

Seattle Central Library Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus of the office for metropolitan architecture (OMA) tackled the skin of the building from a different approach as they stretched a diamond patterned structural mesh skin over the cantilevered and vertical volumes of the building, “much like a fishnet stocking stretched over a leg.”

(Brooke Hodge, 2006, p. 19) (Fig B.1) The library programme is actually based on deep research, as

Fig.B.2 Model showing building‟s skin and bones

architects from OMA and their clients cooperatively visited libraries in Europe and the United States of America to research existing institutions and theorize about their future. This extensive research led the architects to visualize the flexible areas of the library such as reading rooms, mixing chamber (central reference area) and living rooms set between five programmatic boxes established to serve the fixed needs of the project such as the administration office, book storage, staff, and parking areas. These programmatic spaces were reconceived as cantilevered boxes in vertical stacks which create different facades from cantilevered projections. The entire building is wrapped in a diamond shape mesh skin of glass panes, set into a

Fig.B3 diagram showing the fixed 5 programatic boxes and the flexible areas of the library 2018- Ahmed Gamal Ibrahim

matching steel grid that operates as glass Curtin wall and as a part of the structural system. (Brooke Hodge, 2006, p. 184) (Fig B.2, B.3) T6: SMART SKIN

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“The built façade with glass fronts variously raked according to the Fig.B.4 Interior view illustrating the effect of the skin in the flexible areas of the library

need for the daylight and the urban structural context matches the collage of partially staggered stacked zones. The repeated piercing of the façade acquires a dynamic intensification by the rhombic bracing, which emphasises the shift inclination with great effect.

Whilst with the typical screening façade of modernity a static lattice exposes the physical and constructional circumstances, the logic of construction is here, in the truest sense of the world, inverted. The

Fig.B.5 images showing the steel computer-aided manufacturing, and scanning for tolerance check and 3d model

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effect of the facets in the façade reinforces the collage-like character of the library and emphasises how the previous organisation of things has been abolished.” (Schmidt, 2009, p. 13) (Fig B.4,B.5)

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Institute du Monde Arab in Paris Fig.B.6 image showing Institute du Monde Arab elevation

The glass southwest façade of Jean Nouvel’s land mark building which was built in 1987 includes a series of 240 photo sensitive metal apertures (devices) that opens and close automatically to modulate daylight and solar heat gain to the building.(fig B.6) The architect’s aim was to increase the building energy efficiency performance by dynamically controlling the heat gain, introduced to the building through the envelope, which leads to reduction in the energy demands of the building only when it matters while maintaining the other demands of the façade such as daylight and views to be obtained.

“The Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC), expressed as decimal, measures the transition of heat directly through the glass between the outside and inside. Glass with SHGC of 0.30 means 70 percent of the solar heat load is being blocked.” (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 29) The opening and closing apertures of 240 devices that makes the façade, constantly shift the effective SHGS as they modulate radiation, while the enclosed cavity of the apertures themselves act as an effective buffer to reduce conducted heat loads. (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 30)

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Fig.B.7 Image showing the interior effect of the shutters

The responsive elements’ maintenance proved too difficult and expensive; hence the responsive, performative aspect of the façade was abandoned a few years after the building opened. (Meagher, 2014)

B.8 Close up image showing the open and close panel.

B.9 drawing showing the open and close combination of the panel.

B.10 Image showing the interior effect of the shutters and the use of the space

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Fig.B.11 Renderd image showing the building skin at night time

Libya Land Registry Authority Building Development Project The Land Registry Authority (LRA) office building is one of the projects I have participated in designing at LCE Architects where my main focus was on creating a two layers skin to the building to respond to its hot climate in desert context and provide a distinctive character relating to its location.

First floor office plan

The public space is the focal point of the LRA buildings. This will be a double height volume at the main entrance, with a similar double height external covered public space adjacent to it. The reception space will act as a focal point with the public space both with views out from the two floors and with an open balcony up to the first Ground floor reception and archive

floor office space allowing an interaction between the two levels of the building. Externally a landscaped court, with a water feature, shaded seating area and planting will allow customers to relax, whilst waiting their turn to see a Customer Service Officer.

The Office is divided simply into a public/front of house and archive

Ground floor puplic space and entrance

spaces on the ground floor and office spaces/back of house on the 1st Floor.

Fig.B.12 diagrams showing the functionof the spaces

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Fig.B.13 Renderd image showing the building skin day time

Fig.B.14 Renderd image showing back facade and the outdoor space on the first floor

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Fig.B.15 Renderd image showing the building entrance

The building’s structure is formed from a simple concrete frame with block and insitu concrete in-fill. On the 1st floor the building is set back on the rear elevation to form a terrace whilst on the front elevation the curved facade of the prayer room pushes out under the public canopy breaking the large glazed front facade.

The cladding material is then wrapped over this solid box, much

Fig.B.16 Daiagram showing the solid volume

like a skin of perforated and textured metal panels that reflect the natural colours and landscape of the desert region.

At certain strategic points along the elevation this skin will be pulled back to reveal windows or door opening, giving the facade depth and revealing the solidity of the building behind. The air flow between the building envelope and the second skin reduces the solar gain into the internal space.

Fig.B17 Daiagram showing the skin layer

Fig.B.18 close up render showing the openable part of the skin

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Fig.B.19 Sketch view to the tower

and its podium

Elbahr Towers office building, Abou Dhabi, UAE Al Bahar towers designed by Aedas architects and Arup in 2008 and built in 2012. This innovative project was the ‘CTBUH Innovation Award Winner’ and a ‘Best Tall Buildings Middle East & Africa Finalist’ award in 2012. (Wood, 2013, p. 142) Building Programme The project consists of two identical 29 storey, 145m tall towers.

The towers main use is offices. A 100m wide curved roof between the two towers forms the podium to incorporate the grand entrance lobby which accommodates a range of shared facilities including prayer rooms, restaurants, and an auditorium, while enabling segregated access to be achieved for various categories of users including members of the public and staff. The two towers also share two levels of basement which is predominantly car parking, several large plant areas, and back-of-house areas associated with catering and storage. Several internal three storey skygardens are incorporated along the southern façade of the building which, in addition to the external skin, help reduce the effects of solar exposure. These skygardens serve as amenity spaces for the building users. The top of each tower (the crown) forms an observation level which offers spectacular views of the surrounding context.

(Armstrong , Andy; etc 2013, 60)

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The design approach In designing the two towers, the designer approach considered the increased intrust of Abu Dhabi’s government in the concept of sustainability, efficiency and green building as well as the desire to use modern technology to meet their goals.

For the past decade the only goal of the construction industry in UAE was to build the biggest and tallest developments (Al Marshi and Bhinder 2008, 6). The tradition of tall buildings therefore has relied upon designs coming from North America and Europe which generally do not address the radically different climate and relying primarily on high-performance reflective curtain walling systems which utilized tinted glazing to deal with issues such as glare and heat gain. Fixed shading devices have been employed in some applications with positive effects, but are only optimized for one condition and do not provide ideal results.

One of the main key drivers for Aedas, the architect, was to develop a building skin that was both efficient and iconic. The skin design relates to Islamic architecture as a way to connect the building to its context and also embodies a novel approach to reducing the effects of the high temperatures and intense solar radiation that characterise the local environment.

The innovative idea of developing an external movable shading system was inspired from studying the local Islamic concept of a Mashrabeiya, Which is a form of a wooden lattice screen that has been used for centuries in Islamic architecture for shading and to provide privacy. (Fortmeyer and Linn 2014) A circular plan form was proposed for its efficiency of wall-to-floor area and reduced amount of surface area. The overall form of the towers was optimized to complement the shading system.

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Fig.B.20 image showing the gab between the skin and the glassing system

How it works The towers skin consists two layers the first is curtainwall while the second one is a dynamic mashrabeia. This second layer of the skin consists of over 1,000 individual semi-transparent (20 percent visible) single layer of PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) coated with fiberglass moveable shading devices (umbrella-like). (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014) Each of these devices individually shifts to five positions between fully open and close in response to the sun’s path, allowing indirect sunlight to enter the building while blocking the strongest rays to prevent glare and heat gain. The unitised masharbeia when closed sits about 2 meters from the glazing line to allow for façade cleaning and maintenance equipment. The whole system is controlled via the Building Management System in order to create an intelligent skin, which improves the comfort and light in the spaces inside as well as reduce the need for artificial lighting and overall cooling loads by reducing over 50% in solar gain which results in a reduction of CO2 emissions by 1,750 tonnes per year. (Armstrong , Andy; etc, 2013) Through testing process and exposing the prototype of the skin constructed by Yuanda, the skin supplier, for hours of sand, wind, dirt and salt water spray some issues with the actuators and motors were revealed. These issues were addressed later in the design. The design team expect the actuators, which cycle once per day to last more than 15 years while the motors should last more than 10 years before need to be replacement. (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 180)

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Fig.B.21 Interior view showing the large span

Beijing National Aquatics centre – Water Cube The iconic National Aquatics centre in Beijing, known as the water cube, represents one of the most realised examples of using fully integrated materials for designing intelligent skin by using ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene). The building was designed by PTW Architects and ARUP in a design competition in 2003.

The building programme included an Olympic competition swimming pool with seating for 17,000 spectators, restaurant, assorted wave pools and other facilities to enable the building for future use after the Olympics games period.

The concept of a” box of bubbles” was designed based on the natural structure concept of soap bubbles. The complex steel

Fig.B.22 Diagram showing the structure of the Water Cube

structure then hold ETFE pillows to form the building skin.

ETFE as a material is resistant to ultra violet (UV) light degradation as well as atmospheric pollution. The material can be designed and manufactured in single-ply sheets or double or triple-ply to address different use conditions. Generally speaking, in comparison to glass ETFE is low maintenance, recyclable and light weight. On the other hand when it is used in a single sheet-ply, it has poor acoustic and thermal performance.

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However, the Cube project design used triple ply configuration “pillows” with air pumped in between the layers to enhance the thermal performance.

The design process had a clear objectives to select the material of the building skin. These objectives were lightweight, inexpensive, translucent, able to cover great span for building efficiency and condensation free. These criteria narrowed down the available materials to four options which were glass, polycarbonate, fiberglass and ETFE. While the obvious material was glass but it was rolled out due to its heavy weight, and required a secondary steel framing system which will increase the building cost. Polycarbonate and fiberglass are expensive to mould to form the bubbles look panels.

On the other hand ETFE weighs only 1 percent in comparison to glass for the same area, and lower in cost.

ETFE as a façade cladding material has been used successfully before in several projects, for example Clarke Quay in Singapore, completed in 2006 to form a canopy for an outdoor shopping mall. The ETFE canopy helped to regulate the outdoor air temperature to create an acceptable micro-climate in a relatively hot and humid city.

ETFE was used as well in a much larger scale in Eden Project in Cornwell, in the United Kingdom. It was designed by Arup with Grimshaw Architects in 2001. Eden Project is effectively a large green house where a single layer of ETFE is less restrictive than an Olympic indoor swimming centre with about 20,000 people attending at any one time.

So the challenge to design the building skin with using ETFE were maintaining the building temperature, avoiding over heat or getting cold, overcome condensation, being easy to maintain and replace faulty pillows without damaging to whole system.

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Fig.B.23 closeup view to the pillows

How it works The building skin consists of 4,000 ETFE cladding elements called pillows, as the designer called it, some of these pillows are about 9meters across. There are seven different sizes of pillows for the roof while having 15 variation for the walls in order to create the random effect required. Each one of these pillows are manufactured form two or more layers of the impermeable fabric, each layer is about 0.2 mm thickness. These layers are then heat-weld around the edges and inflated to pressure range between 300 and 800 Pascal. These pillows then were machine-clamped to the metal carrier frame, In order to make ETEF more structurally durable and resilient to weather and human impacts.

Different variations of patterns were considered prior construction to optimise the loads and the stress levels on the pillows. (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 172) Arup then introduced within each pillow another layer of frits, white dots, printed on the surface of the ETFE to reduce further the solar heat gain through the faรงade and therefore reducing the cooling loads on the space. This layer of frits were positioned in the areas that would block the summertime sun while allowing the winter sun to penetrate through the skin to passively heat up the internal space. Computer simulations indicated that the frit patterns would result on an effective shading coefficient of 0.2 in summer and between 0.3 - 0.35 in winter.

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Fig.B.2$ close up showing the light effect

Also Arup used different colours of ETFE, such as blue for exterior layer and white for internal layer, in forming the pillows to reduce the U value of the skin and to create the watery effect desired by the architect.

The air trapped between the layers of each pillow crated a cavity, which could be mechanically vented by pulling the hot air out into the swimming pool to heat it up during winter months and exhaust the hot air out through the roof during summer months.

Analysis shows that the skin traps nearly 20 percent of the solar heat which can be used to heat the space inside. The translucent nature of the ETFE results on further 55 percent saving of the building consumption of electric lighting energy. (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p.

173)

Fig.B.25 section diagrams showing the ventilation strategy in summer and winter

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Fig B.26 Image illustrating the curling effect for the thermobiometal material used for bloom installation.

Bloom Installation Pavilion, Los Angeles An alternative method to create a smart skin was the idea introduced by Doris Sung in the installation pavilion Bloom in Los Angeles, principal of her own studio dO|Su Studio Architecture and an assistant professor at the University of Southern California, Sung clarified in her TED Talk that "We can't do net-zero energy just by making mechanical systems more efficient," Instead, Sung takes our natural biological defences as a model. "What I propose is that our building skins should be more similar to human skin, and by doing so can be much more dynamic and responsive," (Anderson, 2012) that is achieved by exploring new smart materials in architecture by using thermobimetals.

A thermobimetal is basically two sheets of metal laminated together, each with different thermal coefficients of expansion. This results in the laminated metal sheet bending and curling as the temperature changes. (Sung, 2012, p. 5) No adhesive is used between the two materials only the molecular bond between the two 3.175 millimetre thick sheets. Sung used two different thermobimetals in the design process for the pavilion; a manganese nickel alloy on the inner surface and a darker manganese iron on the outer surface, which together curl from a temperature range of around 21ยบC up to of 204 ยบC.

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FigB.27 Diagram showing the expossure analysis on the form.

Bloom is an interactive smart skin that dynamically opens in high ambient temperatures or direct sunlight.However, from an energy perspective bloom is a passive system, which requires no artificial source of energy to function. The system is designed to allow the release of hot air from below or close to shield the underside from unwanted solar gain.

The width of the flaps that make the infill panels 15.2 centimetres wide rolls as they were governed by material limitations from the manufacturer. The design was developed by a process of analysing the materials’ property and behaviour in different sun positions. A system was established to distribute the different tiles and panels across the surface of the structure and allowed for the non-curling flaps to be used where more structure support was required. The long- curling flaps were used in the areas subject to increased solar exposure.

Avant Garde technology in this instant had a huge role in the design and fabrication process. In the design procedure, the team used a variety of parametric processes; relying on grasshopper and Rhino software to enable them to design and distribute the various panels in a way that can be manufactured off site and assembled on site FigB.28 Diagram showing the diffrent curling effect in relation to the exposure of the panel to direct sun.

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according to a numbered diagram.

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Different options were considered for the fabrication process as Fig B.29. Diagram showing the different panels types, structural panels and moving panels. Source: (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, pp. 83)

conventional metal flaps could have been cut with a water jet, but water would have corroded the thermobimetals. Laser-cutting would heat the metal and cause it to curl during the process, to avoid this, the offsite fabricators had to put weights down on the metal strips during the cutting process. On the other hand, laser-cutting allowed for an individual identification tags system to be laser-etched into each component, to go along a construction manual used by the fabricators and the installers on site.

Sung stated that Bloom’s materials would properly last for 5 years before its performance degrades, but she believes that further research will uncover materials that perform similarly for a longer life span. (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, pp. 81-86)

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Fig B.30 Meteorosensitive Morphology installation in Centre Pompidou.

HygroScope: Meteorosensitive Morphology installation in Pompidou Centre, Paris This type of physically programming responsive materials similar to the human skin that inspired Sung had also inspired Achim Menges and Steffen Reichert. They were looking at the biology of plants and how they employ hygroscopic actuation to generate motion, as for example conifer cones. The cone is a dead plant organ but its material is programmed to perform a motion based on a change of an environmental condition. Within plants, hygroscopic actuation allows them to move without muscles, ie, self-generated force and if applied to architecture it could allow for motion without motor. (Achim Menges, 2015, p. 68) HygroScope: Meteorosensitive Morphology installation in Pompidou Centre in Paris was an experiment that was based on more than 5 years of design research and development on climate responsive architecture systems without using any mechanical system. Wood has a particular striking attribute which is hygroscopy, the ability to attract water molecules from the surrounding environment. (Ibrahim, 2016)

Fig. B31 Conifer cones. The cone is a dead plant organ but its material is programmed to perform a motion based on a change of an environmental condition.

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Fig B 32. Close up image of Meteorosensitive Morphology installation in Centre Pompidou.

The responsive capacity in this installation is entrenched in the material’s hygroscopic behaviour and anisotropic characteristics.

Anisotropy represents the directional dependence of a material’s characteristics, in this case, the different physical properties of wood in relation to the direction of the grain. Hygroscopicity refers to a substance’s capacity to take in moisture from the atmosphere when dry and yield moisture to the atmosphere when wet, thereby maintaining moisture content in equilibrium with the surrounding relative humidity. (Menges, 2012) In the process of adsorption and desorption of moisture the material changes physically, as water molecules become bonded to the material molecules. The increase or decrease of bound water changes the distance between the micro fibrils in the wood cell tissue, resulting in both a change in strength due to inter fibrillary

Fig B.33 sketches to illustrate the layers of the composite wood material

bonding and a significant decrease in overall dimension. Given the right morphological articulation, this dimensional change can be employed to trigger the shape change of a responsive element.

(Menges, 2012)

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Appendix C: Application Projects Additional Information

Fig. C.1 The computational design script used to visualise the data collected from Gatwick airport weather station using Grasshopper, and Ladybug plugins for Grasshopper, for environmental simulation for the climatic studies for the site locaton of the project

Fig. C.2 The computational design script used for the heat gain studies to develop the building massing using Grasshopper, and Ladybug plugins for Grasshopper.

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Fig. C.3 Second floor plan- level+8.7

Fig. C.4 Interior view to the atrium space

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SECTION A-A

SECTION B-B

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Fig. C.5 Contextual sections A

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B

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Fig. C.6 Detailed wall section developed for T7b

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Fig. C.7 Physical model images done for D6 2018- Ahmed Gamal Ibrahim

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Bibliography Bibliography Achim Menges, S. R., 2015. Performative Wood. In: A. M. Helen Castle, ed. Material Synthesis: fusing the physical and computational. Chichester: Wiley, pp. 66-73.

Addington, D. M. & Schodek, D., 2005. Smart Materials and Technologies: For the Architecture and Design Professions. Oxford: Routledge.

Aksamija, A., 2013. Sustainable facades: Design methods for high-performance building envelops.

New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Aksamija, A., 2017. Smart Skin [Interview] (17 February 2017).

Al Marshi, H. & Bhinder, J., 2008. From the Tallest to the Greenest - Paradigm Shift in Dubai. Dubai, CTBUH Reserch Paper.

Anderson, L., 2012. Architizer: Biologist-Turned-Architect Invents "Breathing" Metal Building Skin.

[Online] Available at: http://architizer.com/blog/doris-kim-sung-thermo-bimetal/ [Accessed 27 April 2016].

Armstrong , Andy; etc, 2013. The Al Bahar towers: multidisciplinary design for Middle East high-rise.

The Arup Journal, pp. 60-73.

Atkin, B., 1988. Intelligent buildings: applications of IT and building automation to high technology construction projects. New York: Halsted Press.

BHCC, 2001. SPGBH 5 Black Rock Development Brief , Brighton and Hove: Brighton and Hove City Council.

Bullivant, L., 2005. Intelligent Workspaces: Crossing the Thresholds. Architecture Design, Volume 75(1), pp. pp. 38-45.

Colquhoun, A., 1997. The concept of regionalism. In: Postcolonial space(s). New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1997 , pp. 147-155.

Cremers, J., 2009. Detail Magazine: Integration of Photovoltaics in Membrane Structures. [Online] Available at: https://www.detail-online.com/article/integration-of-photovoltaics-in-membranestructures-13805/ [Accessed 10 10 2017].

D. Michelle Addington, D. L. S., 2005. Smart Materials and New Technologies For the architecture and design professions. Oxford: Architectural Press.

Drake, S., 2007. The Third Skin, Architecture Technology and Environment. Sydney: UNSW PRESS.

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Fortmeyer, R. & Linn, C. D., 2014. Kinetic Architecture: designs for active envelopes. Mulgrave: Images Publishing Group.

Hodge, B. & Mears , P., 2006. Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture. 1st ed. ed.

New York: Thames & Hudson.

Ibrahim, A., 2016. T5a: Intelligent and Smart Skins, Oxford: Oxford Brooks.

Ibrahim, A., 2017. C5: Black Rock Digital Media Hub, Cultural Report, Oxford: Oxford Brooks.

Ibrahim, A., 2017. T7a: BLACK ROCK DIGITAL HUB: Technology Report, Oxford: Oxford Brookes.

Imperiale, A., 2002. Digital Skins. In: Skin: surface, substance and design. New York: Princeton Architectural press, pp. pp. 54-63.

Kathy Velikov, G. T., 2013. Responsive Building Envelopes: Characteristics and Evolving Paradigms.

In: Design and Construction of High-Performance Homes: Building Envelopes, Renewable Energies and Integrated Practice. New York: Routledge, pp. 75-92.

Loos, A., 1998. Ornament and Crime. In: Ornament and Crime: Selected Essays. California: Ariadne press, pp. 167-176.

Lupton, E., 2002. Skin: Surface, Substance, and Design. New York: Princeton Architectural press.

Meagher, M., 2014. RESPONSIVE ARCHITECTURE AND THE PROBLEM OF OBSOLESCENCE. ArchnetIJAR, International Journal of Architectural Research , pp. 95-104.

Menges, A., 2006. Manufacturing diversity. In: Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design. London: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 70-77.

Menges, A., 2012. HygroScope: Meteorosensitive Morphology. [Online] Available at: http://www.achimmenges.net/ [Accessed 26 April 2016].

Mostafavi, D. L. a. M., 2005. Surface Architecture. s.l.:MIT Press.

O'Riodan, T., 2001. Globalism, localism & identity. London: Earthscan.

Roudsari, M. S., 2017. Ladybug Tools. [Online] Available at: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/ladybug Sung, D., 2012. Prototyping a Self-Ventilating Building Skin with Smart Thermobimetals. California, AIA .

Thorsten Klooster, e., 2009. Smart Surfaces and their application in architecture and design. Berlin: Birkhauser.

Wigginton, M. & Harris, J., 2006. Intelligent Skins. Oxford: Elsevier Architectural Press.

Wood, A., 2013. Best Tall Buildings 2012. New York: Routledge.

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List of Figures Literature Review Fig1.1. The Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe, represents free façade in modern architecture. Source https://saoromaomoveis.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/farnsworth-house-em-illinois-por-mies-van-der-rohe/ Fig 1.2. The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art designed by architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis.

Source: http://www.abitare.it/en/architecture/2009/09/25/cooper-union-by-morphosis-2/?refresh_ce-cp Fig 1.3. The award winning HelioTrace Adaptive Façade system by SOM/ABI/ Permasteelisa, 2010 showing the integrated approach to control the environment. Source: (Kathy Velikov, 2013, p. 85) The Function of Building Skin Fig2.1. A recent T-mobile USA advertisement illustrates “your work force is mobile. Shouldn’t their offices be mobile too?”

Source: (Bullivant, 2005, p. 38) Fig.2.2 Night shot showing diamond pattern mesh skin Source: Hodge B., Mears P., Sidlauskas S., Skin + Bones parallel practice in Fashion and Architecture, p184 Fig.2.3 Model showing building‟s skin and bones Source: Hodge B., Mears P., Sidlauskas S., Skin + Bones parallel practice in Fashion and Architecture, p186 Fig.2.4 diagram showing the fixed 5 programatic boxes and the flexible areas of the library Source: http://ideaconference.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/library_words.png Fig.2.5 Interior view illustrating the effect of the skin in the flexible areas of the library Source: http://www.europaconcorsi.com/db/pub/images/20396/669352897.jpg Fig.2.6 South façade of the paper art museum with shutters closed. Source: Mc Quaid M., Shigeru Ban, p223 Fig.2.7 F South façade of the paper art museum with shutters open: Source: Mc Quaid M., Shigeru Ban, p223 Fig.2.8 image showing Institute du Monde Arab elevation Source: http://www.ianbramham.com/_photo_3374304.html Fig.2.9 drawing showing the open and close combination of the panel. Source: (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 30) Fig.2.10 Image showing the interior effect of the shutters Source:http://focal-glow.tumblr.com/post/99555109158/institut-du-monde-arabe-in-paris Design Strategies and Climate Fig.3.1 Koppen Climate Classification System Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6ppen_climate_classification Fig.3.2 -3.7 illustrations done by the author while working for LCE Architects Fig.3.10 -3.12 Albahar Towers UAE. Source http://www.archdaily.com/270592/al-bahar-towers-responsive-facade-aedas Fig.3.13 Aerial view to the water cube. Source http://www.panguhotel.com/en/vip_list.html?id=2 Fig.3.14 the building under construction showing the main structure, secondary structure and the clamped pillows. Source https://yeswebim.wordpress.com/2015/04/13/bim-and-scripting-beijing-national-aquatics-center/ Fig.3.15 diagram showing the layers of each Pillow, and fixing detail. Source (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 172)

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Fig 3.16. Sun exposure diagram used to examine the impact of sun exposure on each panel.

Source: https://www.archdaily.com/215280/bloom-dosu-studio-architecture/bloom_img_19_dosu Fig 3.17. The curling effect of the thermobiometal material used for Bloom installation, Los Angeles.

Source: http://www.archdaily.com/tag/doris-kim-sung/ Fig 3.18. Diagram showing the panels’ different curling effect in response to sun exposure.

Source: (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, pp. 82) Fig 3.19. Showing the open and close of the installation elements in response to change in humidity levels.

Source: http://www.designboom.

Fig 3.20. Showing the impact of humidity level change to the opening and closing movement of the composite material.

Source: http://www.designboom.

Fig 3.21. The conifer cone is a dead plant organ but its material is programmed to perform a motion based on a change of an environmental condition. Source: (Menges, 2015, p. 68) Application Fig.4.1- 4.12 diagrams produced by author through the process of developing the project design (D6, T7a) Fig. 4.13 table illustrating the comparison between the glass and ETFE properties.

Source: https://www.makmax.com/business/etfe_chart.pdf Fig. 4.14- 4.18 produced by author through the process of developing the project design (D6, T7a) Fig. 4.19 showing the SolarNext AG flexible PV technology Source: https://www.detail-online.com/article/integration-of-photovoltaics-in-membrane-structures-13805/ Evaluation and Conclusion Fig C.1 Diagram illustrating the research area of interest. Diagram created by Author.

Fig C.2 Diagram illustrating the proposed process of a climatic design approach to building skin. Highlighting the process, evaluation and feedback loop. Diagram created by Author.

Appendix Fig A.1 Extend of human thermal comfort factors Source: (Lovell, 2010, p. 14) Fig.B.5 images showing the steel computer-aided manufacturing, and scanning for tolerance check and 3d model Source: Hensel M., Menges A. & Weinstock M.(eds), AD: Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design, p75 Fig.B.7 Image showing the interior effect of the shutters and the use of the space Source:http://focal-glow.tumblr.com/post/99555109158/institut-du-monde-arabe-in-paris Fig.B.8 close up image showing the open and close panel.

Source: http://focal-glow.tumblr.com/post/99555109158/institut-du-monde-arabe-in-paris Fig.B.11-B18 Drawings done by the author while working for LCE Architects Fig.B.19-B.20 Albahar Towers UAE. Source http://www.archdaily.com/270592/al-bahar-towers-responsive-facade-aedas Fig.B.21 Interior view showing the large span Source: (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 172)

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Fig.B.22 Diagram showing the structure of the Water Cube Source: https://yeswebim.wordpress.com/2015/04/13/bim-and-scripting-beijing-national-aquatics-center/ Fig.B.23 close-up view to the pillows Source:https://yeswebim.wordpress.com/2015/04/13/bim-and-scripting-beijing-national-aquatics-center/ Fig.B.24 close up showing the light effect Source:https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/360850988864846407/?lp=true Fig.B.25 section diagrams showing the ventilation strategy in summer and winter. Source: (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, p. 172) Fig B.29. Diagram showing the different panels types, structural panels and moving panels. Source: (Fortmeyer & Linn, 2014, pp. 83) Fig B.30. Meteorosensitive Morphology installation in Centre Pompidou. Source: http://www.designboom.

Fig B.31. Conifer cones. The cone is a dead plant organ but its material is programmed to perform a motion based on a change of an environmental condition. Source: (Achim Menges, 2015, p. 68) Fig B 32. Close up image of Meteorosensitive Morphology installation in Centre Pompidou.

Source: http://www.designboom.

Fig B.33 sketches done by Author to illustrate the layers of the composite wood material Fig. C.1-C.7 diagrams and drawings produced by author through the process of developing the design project (D6, T7a)

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