General and specific conditionings to consider in the process of designing constructive systems of innovative façades

Abstract

The Building Department of the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra is developing for some time a research line related to the development of constructive systems of innovative façades. One of the developed tools in this research line refers to those factors that could determine or influence the final constructive solution. It is also important to take into account the whole life cycle of the new system, its relation to other constructive systems of the building and its influence in the global building process. A thorough relation of the diverse types of conditionings, which should be considered in the design of façades, has been developed as a guide to identify those that explicitly or implicitly will be necessary to take into account in each case study. Several families of conditionings have been categorized. This complete relation of conditionings allows identifying and defining the main objectives to be considered in each case. These objectives help to define the specific demands (exigencies) that should be solved by the façade constructive system. In this communication we intend to show the importance of these conditionings as a way to study and design these new façades. These conditionings serve as a starting point for the elaboration of a specific programme of necessities related to façade systems. The detailed study of the conditionings allows advancing in the study, analysis, design or assessment of the new constructive systems of façades we expect to develop by means of conceptual and experimental research.