Cover Story
The Elements of PostCOVID Façade Designs
MAKARAND KENDRE
Area Sales Manager India, Renson Ventilation
With the rapid spread of COVID-19, designs for a world will never be quite the same, especially for large public spaces, like airports, hotels, hospitals, gyms, and offices. Makarand Kendre, Area Sales Manager India at Renson Ventilation comes up with a few fresh ideas on the design of facades and fenestration. A critical aspect of designing façades is to incorporate elements
that still allow natural elements like the sun and fresh air to interact with the inside environment smartly. We have learned from COVID that closing a building off from the outside world can be dangerous. In the case of a pandemic or other viruses, the inside environment is not necessarily healthy. So we need to take up the challenge to design façades that can interact with the inside and the outside of a building, and that can adapt itself intelligently to changes conditions. New concepts like natural ventilation via curtain walls and fixed windows with inbuilt PM 10 filters, and external dynamic shading to reduce heat gain up to 10 to 12°C will gain importance in post COVID façade designs. Façade Design for Occupant Wellness The façade is one of the key determinant factors when it comes to occupant wellness. It is literally the window to the outside world. By incorporating external sun shading,
Incorporating external sun screens to prevent overheating of the building
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Effective fenestration is essential to incorporate elements like the sun and fresh air within the inside environment smartly
for example, you can control the inside temperature of a building and/or avoid glare. By allowing occupants to open up a window or a night cooling elements, you can still flush the building with fresh air. These are just a few examples that show that the façade has a massive impact on the comfort level of an occupant. Some quick wins are: incorporating external sun screens to prevent overheating of the building and incorporating elements of the façade that we can open to allow fresh air to flow in. If you link this to a building management system, you can increase the occupant wellness immensely. The ‘New Normal’ Concerning Sustainable Designs The new normal should be that everybody has a 100% reassurance that he/she is working/living in a healthy indoor environment. Everybody should have a right to good indoor air quality. Nowadays a lot of offices are designed to fit as many people as possible, without really thinking about living or working conditions. By planning and building from the perspective of the occupant, we can impact the wellbeing of an occupant. It will result in better performance, fewer health issues and higher motivation.
