NEW TRENDS IN BUILDING FACADES

NEW TRENDS IN BUILDING FACADES

In recent years, new trends have emerged in façade design with many of the latest projects highlighted in architectural awards to employ permeable, green or recycled materials as alternative options for the exterior covering of a building. Better lighting and ventilation of the interior are the main advantages brought by these new façade designs. Below are some of the most prominent projects incorporating such façade designs.

1. Permeable

The Lokmanya Co-operative Credit Society in India, designed by Thirdspace Architecture Studio uses perforated vertical metal fins as a second skin to the primary masonry building envelope and window ribbons. The fins curve out when encountered with the window ribbons and move away from the building when the ribbons widen, thus allowing for the windows to be operated and generating a dynamic façade that continuously varies. The fins also temper the harsh southern sun that hits the building, and allow a more filtered light into the interior, creating an array of light effects that animate the exterior and interior of the building, as the sun moves across the sky, or as one moves around the building. The versatility and functionality of the fins in regard to light filtration and air circulation is what makes the façade design a sustainable solution for the project.

2. Permeable

Called The Lantern, the recently constructed gallery for the electronics company Panasonic, designed by VTN Architects in the capital of Vietnam, uses perforated flower-shaped terracotta blocks to stand out from the surrounding landscape. Traditionally used in tropical climates, these blocks allow for passive ventilation and shade from sunlight. During the day, the blocks allow light to gently seep into the building, forming a canvas of different shadow patterns, while at night this effect is reversed by the interior light of the building, which penetrates the façade, making the building glow.

3. Green

The Naman retreat resort building, named the Babylon, is designed by the same architectural firm and has an equally intricate façade that combines concrete louvers with greenery interspersed. The green façade provides a visual barrier that creates the separation from the road to enhance the privacy of the resort. The finishing material keeping its natural appearance of its base, achieves effeminacy and harmony with the surrounding nature. The façade is working as a buffer space allowing a combination of diverse trees and plants to grow, creating a vertical landscape that provides substantial benefits to the building, such as light and air filtration, temperature control, reduction of pollutant emissions and thermal radiation.

4. Recycled

The folk-art galleries at the China Academy of Arts, designed by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, uses thousands of recycled curved tiles from the rooftops of local houses to cover the gabled roof and exterior walls of the building. The tiles vary in size and hung on stainless steel wires strung across the perimeter of the building in a zigzag form. This form, along with the use of recycled materials enables the galleries to fit in both the rural and urban setting, and to control the volume of sunlight penetrating through the building.

5. Recycled

The newly designed furniture gallery of MY DVA group in Czech Republic, has an extraordinary façade composed of more than 900 plastic black seats. The design of façade was conceptually conceived by the young architectural firm CHYBIK + KRISTOF to function as a banner advert for the furniture company itself. The building is homogenously cladded with a basic form of plastic black seat, without any greater adjustments of the exterior.

The choice of recycled material creates an abstract surface, which not only reflects the production and supply of the company, but also enhances the appearance of the former building with a minimum cost.

6. Recycled

Hyunje Joo’s design for the façade of the Naju Art Museum in South Korea, addresses the separation between the interior and exterior with the construction of a flexible, light, and recyclable surface, made up of 1,500 semi-transparent plastic baskets. The surface minimises the separation between the interior and exterior, as the light and silhouettes beyond the space show through. During the day, the passage of time is more actively sensed as the diffusion and reflection of the material stimulate changes on the appearance of the surface and internal effect on atmosphere.