Facade Retrofits: Sustainable Living Architectural Facades. The Case Study of “Baynunah Hilton Tower” in Abu Dhabi

Eid, Bana; Mounajjed, Nadia

Facade Retrofits: Sustainable Living Architectural Facades. The Case Study of “Baynunah Hilton Tower” in Abu Dhabi

Date

2024

Authors

Eid, Bana

Mounajjed, Nadia

Publisher

SpringerLink

Abstract

Over the last few years, the concept of a more sustainable/eco-responsive skin featured as alternative envelopes for buildings (sometimes termed “Living Architecture”), designed to achieve low energy consumption, cost efficiency, and user comfort. Until today, architects in the UAE tend to design projects with double skin façades more than providing living architecture façade to achieve energy efficiency and sustainability in an extremely hot climate. Since the 1990s buildings in Gulf cities were dressed in cladding, which ignores the importance of building orientation, passive design ideas, and implementation. Purpose – This paper examines the concept of living architecture in the context of the UAE and proposes a framework to retrofit existing unsustainable designs with more eco-responsive ones. Methodology – Energy analysis will be applied to the façade of Baynunah Hilton Tower in Abu Dhabi before and after providing a living architectural façade technique in order to test the energy efficiency of the facade between the two scenarios. The analysis will be applied using FormIt software. Findings – The new proposed façade design “Light-weight Aluminium with Arabesque pattern” have affected positively the energy performance of the building. The energy consumption has been reduced by almost 38% after applying the retrofitting design to the façade. Implications – Façade retrofit is important as it helps in providing sustainable design solutions for the building’s facade that plays an important role in achieving energy efficiency and saving the environment. Originality/value – All the scenarios and simulations were done by the authors using FormIt software.

Description

This open access book presents contributions on a wide range of scientific areas originating from the BUiD Doctoral Research Conference (BDRC 2023)

Keywords

living architecture, eco-responsive facade, double skin facade, adaptive skins, energy performance

Citation

Eid, B., Mounajjed, N. (2024). Facade Retrofits: Sustainable Living Architectural Facades. The Case Study of “Baynunah Hilton Tower” in Abu Dhabi. In: Al Marri, K., Mir, F.A., David, S.A., Al-Emran, M. (eds) BUiD Doctoral Research Conference 2023. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 473. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56121-4_21