Keynote Speaker | Ajla Aksamija, PhD

Keynote Speaker:

Ajla Aksamija, PhD, LEED AB BD+C, CDT, FTI Fellow, Professor and Distinguished Chair for Resilient Places, School of Architecture, University of Utah

“Facade Retrofits: Design Methods for Improving Facade Performance of Existing Buildings”

This presentation will cover design methods for high-performance facade retrofits and outline the necessary steps to ensure that environmental factors and energy-efficiency strategies are integrated into the design process. The facade is one of the most significant contributors to the energy budget and the comfort parameters of any building.
High-performance facades use the least possible amount of energy to maintain a comfortable interior environment, which promotes the health and well-being of the building’s occupants. The first part of the presentation will focus on design methods for high-performance facades. The second part of the presentation will discuss strategies for high-performance facade retrofits of existing buildings, including various case studies (residential, mixed-use, and higher-education buildings).

Learning Objectives:
- Learn about characteristics and specific performance criteria for high-performance facades
- Understand how these aspects influence buildings’ energy consumption, occupants’ comfort (thermal and visual), and occupants’ health
- Identify design methods for improving the facade performance of existing buildings
Recognize how these approaches have been utilized in innovative facade retrofits through case studies.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Ajla Aksamija is a Professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Utah. She is the Distinguished Chair for Resilient Places and directs the Transforming Places, Practices, and Pedagogies Collaborative (TP3C), a research entity. Her research expertise includes building science and sustainability, emerging building technologies and facade systems, digital design and representations, and innovations in architecture. Her professional background includes Perkins and Will, where she directed the Building Technology Laboratory (“Tech Lab”), one of the first practice-driven architectural research laboratories.

Dr. Aksamija authored three books, Research Methods for the Architectural Profession (Routledge, 2021), Integrating Innovation in Architecture: Design, Methods and Technology for Progressive Practice and Research (John Wiley & Sons, 2016), and Sustainable Facades: Design Methods for High-Performance Building Envelopes (John Wiley & Sons, 2013). Her book on sustainable, high-performance facades was translated into Chinese language (China Architecture and Building Press, 2018). She has contributed to several other books and has published over 100 research publications. She is the founder of the Perkins and Will Research Journal, the first peer-reviewed research journal coming from the architectural profession, and served as its editor for fourteen years. She served as the President of the Facade Tectonics Institute (FTI) for two years.