Autonomous Movement of Kinetic Cladding Components in Building Facades

Abstract

Movement of building façade cladding is used to control buildings’ exposure to environmental conditions such as direct sunlight, noise and wind. Until recently, technology and cost constraints allowed for limited instances of movement of facade cladding. One of the main restrictions had to do with the limitations that architects face in designing and controlling movement scenarios in which each façade or cladding element moves autonomously. The introduction of parametric design tools for architectural design, combined with advent of inexpensive sensor/actuator microcontrollers, made it possible to explore ways to overcome this limitation. The paper presents an ongoing research that examines the potential of autonomous movement of façade cladding elements. It defines types of autonomous movement strategies and compares the advantages of these strategies over those of traditional methods of centrally controlled movement. Finally, it presents and discusses several case studies systems in which autonomous movement for building cladding elements is implemented.