Presented at CISBAT 2003, Innovation in Building Envelopes and Environmental Systems

International Conferences on Solar Energy in Buildings, October 8, 2003,

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Perspectives on Advanced Facades with Dynamic Glazings and

Integrated Lighting Controls

S.E. Selkowitz1; E.S. Lee1; O. Aschehoug2

1: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Building Technologies Department, U.S.A.
2: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

ABSTRACT
There is growing interest in North America on the subject of highly glazed building
facades. The concept of a smart, interactive façade is not new – the ability of specific
facade systems to work reliably and effectively is a far greater challenge. We have been
exploring various dynamic façade systems with integrated lighting and HVAC over the
last 10 years. These include automated blind systems as well as emerging electrochromic
glazings, both with automated dimmable lighting and smart controls. More recently we
have extended this work to include internet-based control of lights, blinds and glazings
using low cost chips embedded in fixtures, motors, and glazing controls. As each window
and lighting element becomes a node on the internet they can be controlled via the
existing building energy management system either from an occupants desktop computer,
an on-site facility manager or even from a remote location. Recent experience in
California with disruptions in electric supply and costly peak power suggest value for
such capabilities. This paper briefly summaries the state of recent work in this field,
describing a new facility with three side-by-side test rooms in Berkeley to test new
electrochromic window prototypes, and identifies key performance, systems integration
and cost issues now being studied. The authors bring a cross section of both North
American and European experience to address the many technology, design and business
issues involved.

1. Introduction and Background

As we begin the 21st century, “advanced building facades” are attracting the attention of
many in the building industry. We use this term broadly to refer to building skins that are
highly transparent but provide the required strategies and mechanisms to provide
comfortable interior work environments without excessive energy use or adverse
environmental impact. The interest in North America is growing rapidly, but in general
has followed a trend that seems to have had its origin or at least re-birth in Europe.
Carefully designed and well executed highly glazed building facades are intended to
provide plentiful daylight indoors, visual connection with the outdoors, solar energy to
offset heating needs and fresh air for ventilation purposes, all in a package that makes an
appropriate architectural statement and meets the aesthetic needs of the owner and design
team, and at “affordable” cost. The creation of highly glazed spaces in buildings is not
novel. A history of architectural interest in such spaces and the evolving technologies to
produce them would stretch back 150 years to the Crystal Palace and is beyond the scope
of this paper but suggests that designers and owners have struggled with the problem for
some time. The difficulty in meeting these performance goals in specialized spaces
within buildings such as atria and exhibit halls suggests that creating entire buildings in a
glass envelope is an even more difficult task. However there are an evolving set of
technologies and design strategies that make this undertaking more readily achievable
now than in the past, and new technologies now under development should further
facilitate these future solutions. In the current generation of design solutions, buildings
with “double envelope” facades have attracted the most attention and controversy as well.
There are now numerous new buildings that employ such facades and their variants. The
actual performance of these systems is unclear, and the profession suffers from a lack of
objective, quantifiable data on the field performance of both the design solutions and the
technology. Simple observation and word-of-mouth suggests that some solutions are
working well but that others do not. Distinguishing between these, and understanding the
underlying causal reasons for performance differences, is the challenge.
This paper outlines some of the technical challenges that must be solved to make
transparent facades an energy-efficient, environmentally sound market reality in North
America and reviews recent work at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)
that is intended to contribute to this international effort. The U.S. Department of Energy’s
(DOE) long-term goal is a new generation of “Zero Energy Buildings”, buildings that use
no net annual non-renewable energy. This requires minimizing all existing energy end
uses for heating, cooling and lighting, and then providing the remaining energy needs
with photovoltaics or other renewables. The current generation of building facades must
be vastly improved to meet these challenges. Better tools, design strategies and façade
technologies are intended to emerge from our research in support of these DOE goals.

2. Context and Challenge

Building performance is fundamentally characterized by change, short term and long
term, anticipated and unexpected. Many aspects of building design are driven by an
assessment of projected worst-case conditions and provision of a solution for those
conditions. But buildings operate under a very wide range of conditions, both internally
and externally. Internal environmental needs vary widely with occupant and tasks. A
young office worker with good eyesight reviewing laser printed documents has different
visual needs than an older worker with glasses at a computer terminal beside a window.
The preferred thermal environment varies among workers over a range of humidity,
temperature and airflow. But some of the largest and often uncontrolled changes have as
their origin the external world – temperature, sunlight, wind, and moisture. A façade
system must respond dynamically over a very wide range of these conditions in a manner
that meets numerous occupant and owner needs. The building envelope and its support
systems must control interior daylight and sunlight and associated temperatures over a
relatively narrow indoor range while the exterior variation is enormous, spanning from
darkness to direct sun; and controlling temperatures that range from –40C to +50C.
There is no static façade solution that can be optimized to provide good results at all
times. One classic architectural response has been a well-insulated façade with minimal
fenestration in which the glazing properties are a small contributor to total impacts. But
this is no longer the case with the new generation of highly glazed building facades.
The only workable solution in such a situation is the use of “dynamic” façade systems
whose properties can be actively controlled to achieve the desired operating properties in
response to changing indoor and outdoor conditions. Furthermore since the façade
systems will be more complex than existing static products, and since many new
buildings also have more stringent requirements for security the facades introduce a new
level of required integration with the rest of the building. In the best of the new solutions
the facades play multiple roles throughout much of the occupied building in providing
natural ventilation, daylight and thermal tempering. But this requires a degree of
integration, beginning early in the design process, that is the exception, not the norm
today. It also suggests levels of technology integration that are not routinely practiced in
buildings, although they are consistently achieved in other manufacturing endeavours
such as the automotive and aircraft industries. Finally it suggests the need for integration
across the stages of the building life cycle, so that design intent is properly implemented
during commissioning, and so building operators can effectively manage the
commissioned systems over time as building use profiles change. To add to the difficulty
these solutions will likely cost more than traditional solutions, at least for first cost, and
in the risk averse, cost-conscious building industry this always presents a challenge.
“Advanced facades” today are characterized by three key features: systems integration,
dynamic operation, and changing life-cycle performance issues. To better understand
how facades can meet these challenges our work has raised a number of issues that are
now being addressed by researchers and industry throughout the world. These are
outlined below, with a brief description of our current work in each of these areas.

3. Challenges and Opportunities for Dynamic Façade Systems

a. Advanced facades require greater first cost investment in hardware and
façade technology, some of which may be offset elsewhere in the building
In the majority of cases the additional technology needed to provide new levels of
dynamic control will add to the first cost compared to a base case building. In some cases
portions of this increased first cost will be offset by other design changes, e.g. smart
glazings could allow smaller chillers or elimination of conventional blinds or shades.
Modelling studies suggest these values could lie in the range of $3-$15/m2 but field data
are sparse. These offsets involve more than engineering calculations. Rightsizing a
chiller system or eliminating it entirely requires risk assessment on the part of the
engineer that the operation of the building by the owner for years to come will follow
original design intent. The U.S. General Services Administration is now building an
office building in San Francisco without mechanical cooling on many of its floors, using
cross ventilation at night from automated, operable windows. This was only possible with
substantial additional design and analysis, and from a motivated and knowledgeable
client. [1] There are also operating cost savings, e.g. energy savings, as well that will
partially or fully amortize the added first cost over longer time periods. Future credits for
demand response and time-variable pricing of electricity as well as carbon emissions
could all add to the owners’ annual benefits from buildings with advanced facades.
b. Advanced facades will require enhanced automation and better sensors and
controls for optimal operations
In a small building with a few occupants the opening of a window or lowering of a shade
might be done by the occupant based on a sense of the needs of the space. In a larger
building with many occupants and a design strategy that might involve predictive
algorithms, thermal storage and/or integration of façade and lighting systems, ad hoc
control by occupants must be replaced by more reliable automated controls. Such
controls will accept inputs from a wide range of building sensors (wired and wireless) as
well as anticipatory signals for predicted evening wind and temperature, day ahead utility
price signals and next day expected building occupancy. New low cost sensors with
communications based on internet protocols have been developed and tested at our lab
for motorized blinds and electrochromic windows. [2] Motors, actuators or dynamic
coatings must activate reliably in response to control system outputs. [3,9] Building
automation systems will provide enhanced software that tracks key system performance
metrics over time, comparison to archived past performance data, fault detection and
automated diagnostics to correct faults when they are discovered. Some of these
services may be delivered remotely over the internet. Since the skills to operate such
systems are not cheap a new paradigm of providing expert operators with control over
many buildings at a central location makes sense if the two-way communications and
controls provides the data and feedback necessary. Our work also extends to involving
building occupants directly into providing feedback via the web to building operators.
c. Design of advanced facades will require better simulation and design tools,
better ways of organizing the design team around the goals and better tools
for commissioning and building operations
Traditional design of simple façade systems is based on minimal use of simulation tools
primarily for peak load estimates. Dynamic systems that are responsive and properly
sized for all expected operating conditions must be studied under these diverse
conditions. The ability to create and model a “virtual building” and explore its
operational modes with different glass façade controls is a major objective of new long
term research work. Increasingly the facades are being linked to building ventilation
systems, both natural and mechanical, to provide some or all of the fresh air and thermal
comfort. This requires a new degree of tool integration so that thermal interactions of
facades are properly considered in whole building energy modelling. [9]
Better tools for modelling all aspects of complex, dynamic facades are now being
developed and should be available over the next few years. In the U.S. the
WINDOW/THERM/Optics suite of tools is being extended to model more optically
complex glazings. [4] Radiance already does a good job of modelling light in complex
spaces but new improvements are underway as part of IEA task 31 so that Radiance can
better model more complex glazing materials. [5] The primary building energy
simulation tool in the US is DOE-2, developed over 20 years ago. This is now being
replaced by a new and more powerful whole building simulation tool, EnergyPlus, with
numerous new features such as thermal comfort, moisture adsorption, etc. A companion
tool, SPARK, also allows complex HVAC systems and control algorithms to be modeled.
[6] EnergyPlus is now linked to COMIS for multizone air movement and links to CFD
tools are also being explored. The long-term goal is a suite of tools that shares the same
building data model and facilitates exploration of virtually any design, from schematics
to design development, and even through commissioning and operations of the systems.
The underlying building data model from the International Alliance for Interoperability is
well developed but must be extended further to meet specific façade modelling needs. [7]
d. Technological Innovation will improve performance and reduce costs
Although glass and operable shading systems have been part of buildings for many years
continued innovation drives progress towards meeting new performance goals more
effectively and more economically. Innovations over the last 20 years have reduced the
overall U value of best-available glazing from about 3 W/m2-C to about 1W/m2-C with
future potential to fall to .6. Highly spectrally-selective glazings transmit nearly all
visible but reflect most of the near-infrared radiation in sunlight that contributes to
excessive cooling loads. Motorized shades, blinds and louvers use improved motors,
controllers, sensors, and wired and wireless networks. There is a renewed push toward
smart glazings, with coatings that dynamically change from clear to absorbing or
reflective to reduce solar gain and control glare, a crucial function in an office
environment. Delivering dynamic, responsive control of solar gain and glare, but
permitting daylight use, is still the holy grail of façade technology. The emerging
generation of electrochromic glazings has the best chance of providing these capabilities
in the years ahead. R&D is focused now not only on development of better, cheaper
coatings with improved durability and greater dynamic range but also on the systems
integration issues that will allow maximum energy and non-energy benefits to be
achieved. [8. 9] A new three-room field test facility has just been opened at LBNL to
evaluate these systems solutions and directly measure engineering performance data as
well as occupant response to the systems. The research is aimed at creating heightened
interest in “plug and play” technologies so that smart glass, dimmable lighting and other
systems elements work seamlessly as a system without conflicts.
e. Field testing of design concepts and technologies plays a crucial role in
understanding and validating system performance
In an ideal world with perfect modelling tools one could move with confidence from tool
predictions to construction of the building and then occupancy. In the real world it is
useful to explore issues, options and solutions in a testbed or mock-up whenever feasible
prior to completing construction documents or pouring concrete for a real building.
Mock-ups and test rooms can be expensive but provide levels of performance detail that
are currently unattainable any other way. For system integration studies they are essential
tools for studying and understanding complex systems where the performance of some
parts depends on the performance of all other parts and systems. Testbed studies can
accommodate human factors experiments in the spaces as well as engineering
optimization studies, and they provide invaluable data that should be immediately useful
to other owners, designers and manufacturers of façade systems. Over the past 5 years
LBNL has examined automated blinds and electrochromics in test rooms in buildings in
California with an emphasis on the integration of solar control, glare control and daylight
dimming. [8,9] New studies will continue this work at the LBNL test facility, and near
New York City in an outdoor mock-up of a major new office building with an all glass
façade, exterior fixed shading and interior automated blinds and dimmable lighting.
Figure 2. Interior view of test room on partly cloudy day at Oakland Federal Building.
The electrochromic windows are in the clear state under diffuse light conditions (left).
When sun enters the window, they switch to their fully colored state (right)

f. The performance of buildings and their infrastructure systems will be more

intimately linked to the electric grid.
Several years ago California experienced electricity shortages and more recently the
northeast part of the country experience a massive power outage. California is beginning
to provide economic incentives for customers to adopt smarter building control strategies
that are responsive to real time price signals from the electric grid. With proposed critical
peak pricing programs in California, for 15 to 30 hours per year, with day-ahead notice,
electric prices will rise ten-fold, with offsetting reductions during non- peak periods.
Buildings with smart, responsive controls that can minimize electric use but maximize
productivity and comfort can benefit from these new rates. [9] The challenge for facades
is to make the critical engineering tradeoffs between cooling and lighting use, while
accommodating thermal comfort, glare and satisfaction of users. Responsive systems
that are put in place for such price-responsive rates structures would also function well
during emergencies caused by natural or man-made disasters or disruptions.
g. Human factors issues will influence design solutions
In the process of optimizing building design there is sometimes a tendency to forget that
(most) buildings exist to house the activities of people and must therefore accommodate
their needs as well as their wants and perhaps even their whims. These vary somewhat
because human physiology varies but there are also preferences and desires that may be
harder to understand and design for. Extreme conditions, e.g. high levels of glare or high
mean radiant temperatures, can clearly have a quantifiable impact on some people. Some
aspects of occupant satisfaction and preferences can be effectively assessed but others
remain elusive. The single largest annual economic impact in buildings is the salary of
occupants. Ultimately the impact of the façade on overall productivity is probably
quantifiable under some conditions but not within the useful limits at the current time.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy, Office of Building Technology, Building Technologies Program, of
the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098 and by the
California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) activity under
its Buildings Program.
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