advanced building skins 14 | 15 June 2012 - lamp.tugraz.at - Graz ...

4 Comparison
Advanced Building Skins
As demonstrated in this work, textiles have the ability to offer an extremely lightweight alternative
facade solution. In addition, the textile facade can provide natural light to the interior, while at the
same time reduce glare and, through the use of transparent insulation, thermally insulate the interior
spaces. Next, textiles offer the possibility of very large panel sizes, reducing the installation time
required. And lastly, textiles can provide us with a fully recyclable material. Tensiwall was
theoretically applied to a number of buildings across the world and compared in many performance
and visual categories (see Figure 9 for a visual application of Tensiwall to an existing building).
Because the Tensiwall system previously discussed (Section 3) was designed for use in high-rise
applications, this section compares it to a typical advanced high-rise facade. The comparison discussed
is between another existing building facade in the United States, while the Tensiwall facade system
was hypothetically applied to the building structure. Table 1 provides a detailed evaluation of the two
systems, comparing various performance information as applied to 1 m 2 of facade area.
Table 1: Existing Curtainwall and Tensiwall System Analysis (per 1 m 2 ) [3] [4] [5] [6]
Facade Characteristic Existing Curtainwall Tensiwall
Materials Cost ($)
Insulating Glass: 479
Insulation: Included
Glare Reduction: 392
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Membranes: 476
Insulation: 184
Glare Reduction: Included
Total Materials Cost ($) 871 660
Total Light Transmittance (%) 58 45
Weight (kg)
Glass: 375
Aluminum: 25
Insulation: Included
Glare Reduction: 25
Membranes: 6
Glass: 94
Aluminum: 12
Insulation: 11
Glare Reduction: Included
Total Weight (kg) 425 123
Number of Panels 0.16 0.03
Recyclability (%) Glass: 0
Membranes: 100
Glass: 0
Total Recyclability (%) 0 75
Reusability (%) Glass: 100
Membranes: 100
Glass: 100
Total Reusability (%) 100 100
Repurposability (%) Glass: 100
Membranes: 100
Glass: 100
Total Repurposability (%) 100 100
Looking at a very rough materials cost only, the two systems are somewhat comparable, with
Tensiwall costing less than the existing one. In fact, the cost can be reduced even further, depending
on the type of textile used. This estimate is based solely on the cost of the materials, as the fabric
exterior wall system has never been built. However, it does provide a general and informative