Structural Characterisation and Performance Assessment

Modern adaptive facades can significantly improve energy and thus cost, efficiency of both new and refurbished buildings by responding to the changes in the outdoor conditions. Furthermore, they can provide healthy and comfortable indoor environment to the building occupants, by adjusting the response to their needs. As the main function of facades is to separate the indoor from the outdoor environment, their performance has a major impact to the building’s energy usage is extremely important for reaching the European Commission’s ambitious climate and energy targets by 2020, as well as to follow the 2050 energy roadmap goals. However, another important function of facades is to transfer various design loads (to the building skeleton) and to accommodate movements due to the same actions, being characterized by different features as in the case of self-weight, wind, earthquake loads, as well as thermal actions, extreme mechanical loads, etc. Depending on the type and level of adaptivity of a given facade, such a structural demand could lead to challenges during the overall design process. On the other hand, structural adaptivity can lead to a more efficient static and dynamic response under varying loading conditions, i.e. increase resistance in case of extreme events and/or provide fail-safe collapse mechanisms, thereby enhancing structural robustness. This document collects some major outcomes and feedback from the “Structural” Task Group within the WG2 - COST Action TU1403.