Innovative fabric facades

 Architects are fond of describing their buildings in the metaphoric terms of the human body. The supporting structure is often referred to as the skeleton that holds it up; the enclosure (or envelope) is the skin that protects the insides. The most exciting innovations and serious attention in the construction industries for the past 10 to 20 years has focused on the skin of buildings—the public facade that we all see whether we enter a building or not—because this is universally acknowledged as the most critical part of a building for all the reasons that count. This is where control of moisture, energy efficiency, solar heat gain and sustainable practices can best be addressed. It is also where the biggest growth in new building technology has occurred, spawning new materials, new systems and entire new fields of construction activity such as lightweight composites, smart building controls, automated daylighting and other systems.To get more news about facades architecture, you can visit boegger.net official website.

A dramatic swooping entrance canopy for the Empire Casino in Yonkers, N.Y., efficiently and economically creates excitement through programmable LED lights embedded within the ETFE foil pillow cladding system. The air-filled pillows can swiftly change character via light shows to welcome visitors. Photo: © Paul Warchol.
Fabric facades are a vital part of this growth and perhaps the fastest growing segment of fabric architecture production where innovations are most likely to be found. Architect Nicholas (Nic) Goldsmith, senior principal of FTL Design Engineering Studio, New York, N.Y., affirms this trend in his new book, Mass to Membrane:

“As technology is advancing and environmental concerns are growing, we have seen a recent push towards the use of lighter and greener building materials. As a result, building envelopes have become a significant focus in our built environment.” However, Goldsmith cautions that architectural design and construction must match the unique local conditions of climate, culture and materials where a building lives if it is to be a positive addition to society. “Like the plants that are different in each region of the United States, each one of these climates requires a unique architecture that relates to its local environment.”
Several recent facade projects are showing the way to a future that looks bright and sustainable. There are many advantages of using fabric facades to wrap a building, including lighting control, reduced weight of exterior cladding, lower installation costs compared to heavier metal or glass cladding, and more dynamic facade treatments that allow a building to stand out from its surrounding structures.

“Because of their great translucency and reflectivity, textile facades allow for the play of shadows and light of great depth,” says Nathalie Lortie, director of design and innovation at Sollertia in Montreal, Que., Canada. “Day and night, these luminous surfaces have a positive impact on the environments in which they are integrated; they create a rich ambience and a dynamic synergy of places.” Research has shown that lightweight, translucent shading systems, such as architectural fabrics or fabric meshes, can reduce the solar heat gain through a building’s windows by as much as 80 percent, depending on the building orientation and geographical location. This allows for a significant lowering of building cost and a major reduction in a building’s carbon footprint from operations and maintenance over the lifespan of a building.

For Erik Jarvie, vice president of business development at FabriTec Structures LLC in Dallas, Texas, price is the first advantage that fabric has over metal, concrete or glass cladding. “For as little as $30 per square foot, a building can be given a facelift with a tensile fabric facade,” says Jarvie. “This can have a custom geometric shape providing a unique building envelope and can also be printed on to allow another medium to express a custom branded graphic.”