Why to deal with this topic?

	On viewing office buildings, the lack of interesting facade designs is often evident. This impression is reinforced by the unpleasant atmosphere inside the building. With few exceptions, most rooms are poorely illuminated and ventilated. Surroundings, which one is glad to leave as soon as possible!
	Even in new buildings, the aspects of fresh air and daylight are not taken sufficiently into account. The building facade is degraded to a weather-proof envelope. Atr the same time, technical building services have to assume responsibility for the entire air-conditioning. This means that a potential for significant economic advantages and improved working conditions is simply ignored.
	In our opinion, a facade should be able to offer more: Most air-conditioning requirements can be met naturally, clearly reducing the energy for technical air treatment. This is accompanied by calculable economic advantages for investors and also reduces environmental pollution as a positive side effect. Further, the facade should not only protect the office workers against the weather, but also allow its pleasant aspects to be experienced by the building occupants. Light, air and sunshine will be transmitted as if through a filter, so that a feeling of well-being results and leads to improved working performance.
	What can innovative facades achieve?
	-	In contrast to conventional facades, innovative concepts can reduce the high building operation costs and improve the lighting and thermal quality of working conditions.
	-	They can achieve this by guiding daylight, heat or coolness, and the wind into the building interior, so that most of the energy demand can be met naturally.
	-	A reduction in the energy demand should mean that the extent of installed technical building services can be decreased, which affects the investment costs positively and additionally reduces the operating costs.
	-	As less room is needed for technical building services, more area is available to the main users in the same building volume.
	In addition, innovative facades already look interesting because they adapt themselves according to the weather conditions and thus have a variable appearance.
	Our Spectrum of Services
	-	Determination of the required facade functions, considering the relevant lighting and heating conditions in the building.
	-	Development of appropriate facade variants. Account is taken of the desired architectural design.
	-	Exact identification of the advantages and disadvantages of various alternative facades.
	-	Decision advice on the materials to be used and ways of applying them.
	-	Determination of expected savings in operating costs, based on computer simulations and other evaluation procedures as appropriate to each design phase.
	-	Cost estimation for the required innovative facade components.
	-	Determination of the overall benefit of the facade.
	-	Calculation of the amortisation period and preparation of an integrated economic analysis.
	In order to obtain an economic facade concept, cooperation is necessary from the first stage of defining the initial design parameters. The greater the proportion of design parameters which have already been irrevocably decided, the smaller is the financially viable benefit of such systems. If the size and position of the windows and rooms have already been fixed, only about 45 % to 30 % of the potential can be exploited. If the technical building services have also been dimensioned, a reduction in the achievable benefit to 25 % to 10 % must be expected.
	For this reason, it is recommended to include the possibilities of innovative facade concepts in the designs for architectural competitions or in the preliminary design sketches.
	Economic Viability of Innovative Facades
	Aufwand
	Depending on the facade construction, the following facts should be stated here:
	-	Good innovative solutions can already be implemented for the same cost as conventional facades.
	-	The cost factors consist of the components and additional planning services.
	Benefits
	Depending on parameters specific to the building and its surroundings, and the construction type chosen for the innovative facade, the following benefits can result:
	-	Reduction of the operating costs for
		- artificial lighting by 50 - 70 %
		- heating by about 50 % and
		- cooling or ventilation by 30 - 70 %.
	-	A reduction in the energy demand should mean that the extent of installed technical building services can be decreased, which affects the investment costs positively.
	-	As less room is needed for technical building services, more area is available to the main users in the same building volume.
	-	The greatest degree of comfort possible in the rooms is achieved, contributing to improved working performance from the building occupants.
	-	The energy consumption can be reduced. This is a positive response to ecological factors such as finite resources and environmental pollution.
	Alone the effect of reducing the operating costs
	-	allows the investment to be amortised within a few years,
	-	reduces the financial risk associated with long-term energy price developments,
	-	and results in enormous savings over the building lifetime.
	The impending energy-saving regulations will result in buildings with low operating costs in future. Buildings of this quality should be constructed today, so that they will remain competitive in future.
	Summary
	1.	Application of innovative components in all types of facade constructions possible.
	2.	Interesting, innovative and future-orientated appearance of predominantly mature technologies.
	3.	Performance superiority of innovative solutions, with attainable benefits regarding reduced operating costs and improved working conditions.
	4.	Large savings over the building lifetime due to reduced operating costs.
	5.	Limitation of the financial risk presented by long-term energy price developments.
	6.	Reduction of the installed building services technology lowers the investment costs and increases the useful area.
	7.	Contribution to environmental quality - consideration of ecological aspects.
	8.	Maximisation of the economic benefit from innovative facades by concept development as early as possible
	It is recommended to integrate innovative facade concepts into the initial design considerations for office buildings. This allows all of the benefits listed above to be gained.
	In addition, the impending energy-saving regulations mean that buildings with low operating costs are to be anticipated. Office buildings which are built today will have to compete with them. Thus, measures to reduce operating costs should be taken today to ensure the long-term profitability of a building in the future.