Interactive Faade in Controlling Natural Light - Term Paper Example

Interactive Façade in Controlling Natural Light Name Institution Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Part 1 3 Introduction 3 Discussion 4 Part 2 10 Conclusion 12 References 12 Part 1 Introduction A smart building is any structure that utilizes automatic processes to automatically control the operations of the building (Liu, Wittchen & Heiselberg, 2015). The operations of the building that can be controlled automatically in a smart building include ventilation, heating, air conditioning, lighting and security systems. The control is usually achieved through sensors, actuators and microchips that are fitted in the building. In a smart building, the control is achieved through the use of data collection which is vital in ensuring that the activities are well coordinated. The performance as well as the reliability of the building is improved through the use of the smart building. A reduction in energy consumption is one of the main aspect that is associated with the smart building (Loonen, Trčka, Cóstola & Hensen, 2013). This is vital in terms of promoting sustainability and hence ensuring that energy is used in an efficient manner. The use of natural light is commonly used in the smart building and hence reducing the need for power consumption. Using the natural light enables the dwellers to carry out their activities without the need for switching on their bulbs that utilizes electricity. Natural light is commonly used during the day for the purposes of lighting and hence improving on the energy consumption. The natural lighting control in the smart building can be carried out through the use of various means. The use of interactive façade is one of the measures that can be utilized in the smart building. The paper thus discusses the use of natural lighting control through the interactive façade. Discussion The interactive façade plays a vital role in terms of ensuring that the building is responsive to lighting in the smart building (Loonen, Trčka, Cóstola & Hensen, 2013). It ensures that natural light is exploited for the purposes of providing light to the occupants of the building. The interactive façade mainly utilizes smart windows for the purposes of ensuring that natural lighting is controlled. The systems that correct or moderate performance of the windows made of glass are usually in place. A static glass envelope is usually used as part of the windows and doors in order to control the natural lighting. Dynamic envelopes are usually used in order to ensure that the performance is effective. The smart envelops usually react to the changes in the exterior climate as well as the solar gains, daylighting, ventilation and heat loss (Liu, Wittchen & Heiselberg, 2015). In most of the smart building, the interactive façade ensures that the occupants of the building have control over the natural light. The interactive façade plays a vital role in ensuring that the direct exploitation of natural energy is attained regardless of the climatic condition. In the interactive faced, the traditional role of the glass envelop has changed. It is current more of an energy collector and transporter as opposed to being a filter. The new architectural profile is increasingly utilizing the interactive façade in order to ensure that natural light is utilized. The use of interactive façade has proved to have a longer lifecycle and hence benefiting the occupants of the building. To ensure that the interactive façade is effective, electrically activated materials are usually utilized. This includes the polymer dispersed liquid crystal films (PDLC) as well as suspended particle displays (Loonen, Trčka, Cóstola & Hensen, 2013). This therefore eliminates the need for traditional blinds and shutter systems. This is vital in ensuring that the optical dimming and density variation effect replaces the bulky mechanical actuation. The façade behavior is one of the most important aspects that have impacted positively on its use. The behavior involves the ability to engage with the changing environmental condition. In most cases, the guidance of the users is not required in the implementation of the changes. Responsiveness is also one of the main characteristics that are associated with the interactive façade. This ensures that the implicit needs of the users are met depending on the condition. In terms of the interaction with the users, the façade can be configured as a series of openings in order to admit natural light. This enables the inhabitants to determine how much light they require. The programmable facades usually respond to the light in terms of day, night or season. Depending on the needs of the inhabitants, the building can be completely dimmed or turned into a shadow theater (Omrany, Ghaffarianhoseini, Ghaffarianhoseini, Raahemifar & Tookey, 2016). Although the facades primarily control the lighting the smart building, the aspects of privacy are also considered. The inhabitants can control how much they would like to be concealed from the outside world. This can be achieved by ensuring that some sections of the glass window is completely concealed with other sections are not. The interactive facade has the ability of responding to the morning as well as the evening sun. This ensures that the lighting is controlled by the inhabitants are still able to enjoy the morning or evening view. During the day, the façade pattern is usually reconfigured to accommodate the desired temperature settings (Liu, Wittchen & Heiselberg, 2015). This ensures modulation for the purposes of controlling the amount of light in the environment. The activity is vital in optimizing the energy consumption in relation to the plan that has been put in place. The ability to modulate its patterns play a vital role in ensuring that the amount provided is ambient and adequate for the inhabitants of the building. The diffusion of ambient natural light and the artificial lighting ensures that there is balance in the glare and reflection in the environment. The interactive façade usually results to the choreography of light emerging from different sources as well as optimized coordinates (Omrany, Ghaffarianhoseini, Ghaffarianhoseini, Raahemifar & Tookey, 2016). This ensures that the inhabitants of the smart building are able to live in comfort while effectively utilizing and controlling the natural light. The design of the interactive façade plays a vital role in ensuring that it is able to effectively carry out its functions. In most cases, the window cells are usually equipped with photocells for calculating the amount of light available and required. The photocells and IR sensors are also available in the windows. The sensors are useful in ensuring that a control mechanism is in place when dealing with the natural light. Sensors are the main component in the interactive façade. A complete sensor is comprised of a motion detector, electronic control unit and controllable switches. The sensor has the ability of detecting motion in order to determine if there are occupants in the space (Loonen, Trčka, Cóstola & Hensen, 2013). When there are no occupants in the space, the lights are dimmed so as to ensure that the energy is saved. However, this is adjusted as soon as an occupant enters the building. A timer is in place for the purposes of signaling the electronic control unit. This is usually carried out after a set of period of inactivity. The signals from the timers are also used for activating the switch in order to turn the equipment on or off. Other sensor types that can be used for lighting include passive infrared, hybrid and ultrasonic. The use of occupancy sensor is an important aspect that is utilized for controlling the natural light. This ensures that the occupancy can work in unison with other forms of lighting that is connected to the network. Depending on the use of the smart building, the energy consumption can be saved for up to 80% (Omrany, Ghaffarianhoseini, Ghaffarianhoseini, Raahemifar & Tookey, 2016). This has been effective in corridors and storage rooms where high amount of light is required throughout the day. The system in most cases is flexible and this has played a vital role in ensuring that the needs of the occupants are met in terms of lighting. Day light sensing is one of the most important aspects that are associated with the interactive façade. It is through the daylight sensing that it is possible to ensure that the natural light is controlled and utilized during the day. The presence of day light sensing ensures that the lights are switched off during the day when there is enough natural light can be allowed in to the building. The automated controls related to daylight sensing usually make adjustments based on the conditions of the natural light (Loonen, Trčka, Cóstola & Hensen, 2013). A high number of people value the access to daylight. The concepts of interactive faced plays an important role in ensuring that the people are able to access the natural light even when they are they are in the smart buildings. This is an indication that the concept has greatly improved on the comfort of the people living in the building. The architecture of the smart buildings is different for the purposes of ensuring that it can accommodate the interactive façade to control the natural light. The floor plans usually have extended perimeters in order to ensure that it can effectively utilize the natural lighting. The design of all-glass building has played a vital role in terms of promoting the interactive façade. The popularity of the interactive facade building is on the rise in different parts of the world. The first generation of the buildings is on the increase in the United States of America (Omrany, Ghaffarianhoseini, Ghaffarianhoseini, Raahemifar & Tookey, 2016). The smarty buildings have however been in Europe for the last few years. The popularity of the smart buildings is mainly attributed to the advantages that it has. One of the main advantages of the smart buildings is the ability to reduce the energy consumption. This has been attributed to the fact that 19% of the energy in the world is used for lighting alone. This contributes to 6% of the greenhouse emissions in the world. In the United States of America alone, 22% of the energy is used for lighting (Omrany, Ghaffarianhoseini, Ghaffarianhoseini, Raahemifar & Tookey, 2016). The utilization of natural light using the interactive façade has played a vital role in terms of saving energy and hence encouraging sustainability. In private offices, the energy used for lighting alone accounts for up to 50% of the total energy consumption. The use of smart building is however effective in ensuring that the consumption of light is reduced by half. A high number of companies are increasingly embracing the concepts of smart building as a means to reduce their energy consumption. The building is also considered green and a number of companies feel that the concept is a vital aspect of corporate social responsibility. The governments across the world are also encouraging the real estate developers to embrace he concept due to its positive impacts that it has on the environment. Various government buildings in USA as well as Europe are currently utilizing the concept as a means to cut the emission of carbon dioxide from their activities in terms of energy use (Liu, Wittchen & Heiselberg, 2015). The idea of using interactive faced is likely to gain ore popularity in future due to its positive environmental effects. The use of interactive facades in smart buildings to control the light is however facing some challenges. It is as a result of the challenges that most of the buildings are yet to embrace its concepts. This includes the new buildings that are coming up in different parts of USA and Europe. One of the main challenges associated with the smart building is the cost associated with the construction process (Liu, Wittchen & Heiselberg, 2015). The materials as well as equipment required increases the overall construction costs. This has discouraged most of the developer and hence impacting negatively on the whole process. Since the process depends on natural light, the users may be affected in some cases where there is no sunshine or the intensity of natural light is low. Frequent interruptions may also be experienced by the users in terms of the lights being switched on and off when the frequency of the natural light is not steady. The appliances such as bulbs may end up being affected by the frequent interruptions and hence increasing the costs associated with replacement. The issues of privacy with regards to the use of interactive façade to control and use the natural light has not been fully addressed (Liu, Wittchen & Heiselberg, 2015). This therefore affects the users who highly value their privacy. This is an indication that more research and development is required before the concept is fully embraced. The challenges associated with the concepts are however few as compared to the benefits. It is for this reason that the concept is likely to receive more attention in future. Part 2 The edge office building, Amsterdam The Edge office building in Amsterdam is one of the smart buildings that utilize the interactive façade to control and utilize the natural light. The building houses a consultancy firm known as Deloitte which is known for its green energy efforts. It was designed by the London based architects PLP architecture (Ornetzeder, Wicher & Suschek-Berger, 2016). It is mainly made of glass and fitted with sensor as well as the other equipment for utilizing the natural lighting. The building is fitted with a total of 28,000 sensors that are used for controlling and measuring light throughout the building. This has played a vital role in ensuring that the natural light is effectively used throughout the building. The artificial light used in the building was designed by Philips which is an international electronic company. As a result of this, only a small amount of artificial light is used in the building. The natural light is widely used throughout the building that is entirely made of glass fitted with the sensors as well as the other equipment required for effective use of the natural light. The light is controlled automatically through the use of various devices. The workers in the building can control the natural light through the use of an app that is accessible through their mobile phones (Ornetzeder, Wicher & Suschek-Berger, 2016). This is therefore an indication that the building is sustainable and it can mainly utilize the natural light which reduces the cost of electricity. The building has currently been dubbed as the world’s greenest as a result of the interactive façade as well as other smart features. A wide range of technology has been used in the building for the purposes of ensuring that the natural light is use effectively. As compared to the other buildings of a similar size, its consumption of electricity is quite low. The energy consumption has been reduced by up to 50% as a result of the natural lighting use as well as other features (Healey, 2013). The building has played an essential role in changing the modern designs in the quest to go green. A number of developers across the world are increasingly putting in place similar designs in order to ensure that their buildings are energy efficient. The building is currently considered as the greenest and most intelligent as a result of the features that it has. The building is the only one to be awarded the highest sustainability score based on its effective energy use. This is therefore an indication that the use of interactive facades can be vital in ensuring that the building effectively use the natural light and it is able to reduce the consumption of electricity (Healey, 2013). However, the initial cost of constructing the building was high. This can be attributed to the unique design as well as the materials that were used during the process. The maintenance of the building is also a critical aspect. High levels of maintenance are required in order to ensure that it continues working as per the design. This is a costly process considering that it is building is 15 storey. However, it continues to be a role model building throughout the world in terms of energy use. Conclusion In conclusion, it is evident that the use of interactive façade to control the natural lighting is increasingly becoming common in smart buildings. The concept has mainly been motivated by the need to conserve energy and enhance the sustainability efforts. The success of the concepts is also attributed to technological advancement. The concept requires various technological gadgets including sensors in order for it to work automatically. It is evident that the use of the concept is on the increase in Europe as well as the United Sates of America. A number of newly developed buildings are already using the concept. It is evident that The Edge office building is currently utilizing the concept and it has seen it getting an award. The use of the concept has seen the building using he lowest amount of energy as compared to other buildings of the same size. The concept is however facing a few challenges in terms of high costs required to put in place the equipment. References Liu, M., Wittchen, K. B., & Heiselberg, P. K. (2015). Control strategies for intelligent glazed façade and their influence on energy and comfort performance of office buildings in Denmark. Applied Energy, 145, 43-51. Loonen, R. C. G. M., Trčka, M., Cóstola, D., & Hensen, J. L. M. (2013). Climate adaptive building shells: State-of-the-art and future challenges. Renewable and Sustainable Energy , 25, 483-493. Omrany, H., Ghaffarianhoseini, A., Ghaffarianhoseini, A., Raahemifar, K., & Tookey, J. (2016). Application of passive wall systems for improving the energy effciency in buildings: A comprehensive review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 62, 1252-1269. Ornetzeder, M., Wicher, M., & Suschek-Berger, J. (2016). User satisfaction and well-being in energy efficient office buildings: Evidence from cutting-edge projects in Austria. Energy and Buildings, 118, 18-26. Healey, K. H. (2013). Unforgivable: exploring thermal comfort, adaptation, and forgiveness in a problem green office building. In Cutting Edge: 47th International Conference of the Architectural Science Association (ANZAScA) (pp. 231-240). Architectural Science Association (ANZAScA). Read More