Welcome to this edition of the SKINS newsletter, which is all about carbon! As guest editor this month, I am representing FTI’s embodied carbon (EC) working group. This issue highlights several important topics relative to embodied and the trade-offs with operational carbon.
Building envelopes are not only an immediately visible part of the building, they have also become a major factor both for cost and performance of th…
The historical focus on reducing the carbon footprint of a building has recently shifted to include more emphasis on embodied carbon, the carbon emit…
As architects and designers we understand the urgency of addressing the building sector’s role in the ongoing environmental crisis. Architecture2030 …
The pathway to carbon-neutrality, as urged during the COP 21 in Paris, and the repeated goal for resilient buildings and urban habitats, winds right …
Today's sustainability in architecture takes into consideration the complete life cycle of buildings and their components, from resource harvesting a…
The construction industry is one of the greatest sources of pollution, where 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions are attributed to building…
For a new corporate headquarters in San Francisco’s Mission Bay district, SHoP Architects designed a semi-conditioned atrium space inside the externa…
Resiliency is the capacity of a building (or building component in the case of the facade) to support building functionalities during extreme events …
Transposing innovation from government funded research to commercially viable solutions becomes ever more important when combined with the urgent nee…
The gap between simulated and actual energy performance has hobbled progress towards important carbon reduction goals in buildings and urban habitat. This summit advocates the need for improved energy modeling and the development of best practices, with emphasis on the building façade.
In order to get to a carbon neutral building stock – which is e.g. required by the EU Carbon roadmap by 2050 – our efforts need to be smart and holis…
Double-Skin Facades (DSF) are well-known to boost the thermal performance of a façade: they can provide extra insulation in the wintertime and lower …
Photovoltaics (PV) have been utilized in buildings for decades, especially in Europe where legislative support has largely driven the market. With ne…
All too often, high-performance building envelopes are considered in terms of new materials and technologies that push specific systems to improve en…
What does the fourth industrial revolution mean to the design and engineering of facades of the future? We are experiencing a global technological re…
Architects today must explore alternative enclosure materials to meet evolving energy codes and embodied carbon regulations. Terra cotta has been mos…
Envelope-for-Service (E4S) is a novel business model developed with the aim of converting the building façade from a traditionally traded good to a c…