April 30, 2010

FEATURE | Building Envelope

German firm launches ‘intelligent envelope’ system

Four components work together to mitigate interior environment

IAN HARVEY

correspondent

In modern building design and construction, every component is getting a rethink around increased efficiency and reduced operating costs.

Building envelopes are no exception. The one size-fits-all approach in today’s era of green-consciousness doesn’t work anymore as architects, and indeed owners, look to find ways to make their structure more efficient and literally smarter.

And that’s why there’s a buzz around the German Schüco E2 Façade system that debuted in Europe last December and is now making the rounds here in North America.

The design breaks away from the rigid, centrally controlled HVAC model that has dominated design over the last 40 years and instead creates what it calls an “intelligent building envelope system.”

Instead of trying to control heat gain or loss and move warm or cold air around the interior via a central HVAC system, the envelope design is locally adaptive, allowing workers on one side of the building that may be lit up by late afternoon sun to feel as comfortable as workers on the other side who otherwise might shiver in the shade and wind.

The company claims the system will reduce heating and cooling energy costs by 50 per cent of the prescribed 2009 German energy saving regulations and up to 80 per cent over North American averages.

It achieves this through a series of four integrated components, chief among them, a system of high-performance external CTB sun blinds integrated into the window walls with small aluminum profiles, concave in the inside and convex outside.

SCHUCO

Above, a fully integrated energy façade: Transparent photovoltaic modules house interconnected solar cells in an insulating glass unit. The grid pattern of the modules can be adapted for each individual project. Below, system draws warm and cold incoming air into the room through slotted outlets in the ceiling.

Photovoltaic solar thin-film technology is embedded in the safety glass which can direct energy either back into the building to power the local HVAC cooling ductwork or to the grid, if prevailing local Feed In Tariff rates are more attractive.

Also, internal, mobile and opaque insulating panels can be moved into place to cut heat loss at night and block solar gain during the day.

Instead of central HVAC control, each area has its own independent venting system that can draw air according to users’ needed for increased heating or cooling.

These technologies combine to rack up LEED points, including the use of more ambient daylight and recycled content among the materials.

The concept of an intelligent envelope allows designers and owners much more flexibility, more so in an era where long term tenants are being selective about where they set up their offices.

Gone are the days of “build and flip” says Murray Atman, architectural sales advisor with Schüco Canada Inc.which brought the E2 system here barely six months ago.

Developers are sticking with their projects as owners and are acutely aware their prospective tenants are well versed in the common language of sustainability and energy efficiency.

They also know comfortable offices mean happier, more productive employees and tenants or prospective buyers are looking for construction technologies which are in keeping with that current thinking.

“We’re at the point where people are calling us as much as we’re calling them,” says Altman. “Schüco is new with this, though we’ve sold curtain components and solar here for 10 years.”

A lot of initial interest is coming from Quebec, he says, where the market is more receptive to European trends, while another project in San Francisco is closest to being the first in North America to use the system.

“They’re just about to go to tender so if all goes well in San Francisco we could be up in 16 months or so,” says Altman, noting there are enquiries from both private sector and public sector projects. The U.S. is slightly ahead of Canada in demand, he added, and is why a project will debut there first.

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