cutting-edge facades

Cutting-edge facade in Karlsruhe, Germany by SAL

Here are a couple cutting-edge facades that I happened to have walked past in Karlsruhe, Germany. In the top photo, the facade has sun shades that change their angle based on the angle of the sunlight at any particular day and time. The entire year's planned solar angles are built into a computer software program that automatically changes the shades on the facade.

The green architectural benefit to having automatically-adjusted solar shades on the exterior of a building is that the interior spaces can be guarded better from ultraviolet rays that could cause the interior temperatures to rise. Keeping interior temperatures low in the summer and higher naturally in the winter is a passive solar technique that obviously reduces the need for mechanical heating and cooling, thus saving money and environmental resources.

We were able to get a tour of the building, to see the shades from the inside and the outside of the building. We also were able to go and see the computer that controlled the shades. We talked with the German engineer who took care of the building. He said, unfortunately, that there were occasional glitches and that the system still had bugs that needed to be worked out. Yet, we were there in 2001 to tour the building. This technology was superior at the time and still is cutting-edge today.

Cutting-edge facade in Karlsruhe, Germany by SAL

If you cannot go high-tech, then go low-tech and add a screen upon which foliage can grow naturally. The foliage, if it has leaves, then shades the building in the summer. When the leaves fall off in the winter, the building can then be heated a bit by the sun.

Studies show that preventing the summer heat from passing beyond the exterior facade structure is much more effective than stopping the extra heat gain once it has entered the building, i.e. by using interior curtains and ceiling fans for example. Green architectural concepts were not revolutionary in Germany at the time. We are still lagging behind Germany year 2001.