Rethinking Building Skins : Transformative Technologies and Research Trajectories

Rethinking Building Skins: Transformative Technologies and Research Trajectories provides a comprehensive collection of the most relevant and forward-looking research in the field of façade design and construction today, with a focus on both product and process innovation. The book brings together the expertise, creativity, and critical thinking of more than fifty global innovators from both academia and industry, to guide the reader in translating research into practice. It identifies new opportunities for the construction sector to respond to present challenges, towards a more sustainable, efficient, connected, and safe future.

• Introduces the reader to the role of façades with respect to the main challenges ahead
• Provides an overview of the major façade technological advancements throughout history and identifies prospective research trajectories
• Includes interviews with key industry players from different backgrounds and expertise
• Showcases a comprehensive range of leading research topics in the field, organised by product and process innovation
• Covers major innovations across the value chain including façade design, fabrication, construction, operation and maintenance, and end-of-life
• Contributes towards the definition of an international research agenda and identifies emerging market opportunities for the façade industry

Eugenia Gasparri is a Lecturer in Architectural Technologies at the University of Sydney. Her research experience is in the field of sustainable construction with a focus on envelope design, building prefabrication, and mass-timber technologies.

Arianna Brambilla is a Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Sydney. Her research draws upon architecture, building physics, and engineering to assess and interpret construction as a holistic concept, with a strong focus on sustainability.

Gabriele is an emerging researcher in renewable energy, with a focus on the
digitalization of solar energy in the built environment. His background is
grounded on building engineer and architecture knowledge and his expertise
convers solar energy systems integration at building and district level, urban
energy planning, smart cities, climate-based solutions, mitigation, and adaptation
strategies, and environmental, microclimate, and energy analyses.
He is contributing to advance the state-of-the-art of solar energy exploration
and integration through the definition of solar neighborhoods’ archetypes,
approaches, methods, and tools to accelerate the use of solar energy in
built environments. Gabriele coordinated the Subtask C “Case studies and
action research” in the IEA Task 51 Solar Energy in Urban Planning and
now he is coordinating the Subtask D “Case studies” in the IEA Task 63
Solar Neighbourhood Planning and the activity A3 - BIPV in our society
within IEA PVPS Task 15 - Enabling Framework for the Development of
BIPV. Gabriele has experienced in several national (REINVENT and
HELIOS), European (Exploit4InnoMat, RAMSES, and CoSSMic), and international
research projects (SEniC, SiNoPSE, and iSTAR). Gabriele has co-/
author of more than 65 publications, including research and review articles
in international high-impact peer-reviewed journals, national and international
conference proceedings, book chapters, and books.

Francesco Goia is a Professor of Building Physics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His research focuses on advanced building envelopes and services providing high energy efficiency and indoor climate performance.

Annalisa Andaloro is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Renewable Energy in EURAC, focusing on system integration and project economics. She coordinates an executive international training course on façade architecture, construction, and engineering (FACE).