Surface functionalisation enables to widen the scope of possibilities available for building envelopes, making tiles active participants in the improvement of building efficiency. Porcelain stoneware is therefore the ideal material for any type of building since it can perfectly adapt to any setting and architectural context, providing construction continuity.īesides the above mentioned technical properties, inherent to all ceramic tiles, stoneware offers new functions which increase its added value through innovation and sustainability. Thanks to the latest high definition digital and 3D printing techniques they can turn into any kind of material – stone, marble, metal, wood – of which are able to reproduce the real surface and colours also to the touch (Fig.3). Ceramic slabs can be also employed in very high buildings. This material is often a favourite because of its aesthetic fine qualities, and its resistance to impact, thermal shock, aggressive chemical and polluting agents. Despite their great compositional freedom, ventilated façades often avoid you some extra charges such as the cost of demolition of parts of the building plus, since the intervention is done on the outside, the occupants of the buildings can remain in their homes.Īmong the materials that can be used for building envelopes, porcelain stoneware is a favourite: it is elegant, adaptable, and offers effective solutions as to aesthetics and energy performance. Among the many advantages that you won’t get from a traditional façade: easy maintenance, and the possibility to hide plumbing or channelling within the gap (they become easily accessible since you can remove single slabs). Furthermore it prevents walls from overheating when it’s hot, thanks to the coating’s partial reflection of sun rays. The external coating, mounted onto a wire mesh directly on the enclosure walls, is not only a visual statement: besides determining the look and appearance of the building it protects it from direct agents, ensuring a prolonged life over time. The thermal gradient between the air temperature outside and the air in the gap makes the air rising, so that steam coming from the inside can get out, improving breathability of the whole building. First, the insulating homogeneous and continuous layer applied to the envelope greatly reduces the number of thermal bridges, which are the main causes for heat dissipation, limiting the wall’s thermal transmission and therefore the building’s energy need during the year.Ī ventilated air cushion, that communicates with the outside through a series of ventilated channels set at the bottom and top of the façade, reduces the risk of condensation on the internal wall. This dry-lay insulation system can be put on existing buildings or on new constructions, greatly improving buildings’ energy efficiency, humidity, soundproofing and life. Leaving aside the most traditional solutions such as external insulation or insulation from the inside, one of the most used technologies to improve envelope performance is the ventilated wall system: an “intelligent” kind of façades, based on the principle of separating the most external layer from the internal wall, through the creation of an air gap where the air can naturally flow thanks to the “chimney effect” (Fig.1). Hence the need for a discussion on which are the most suitable technologies to improve building envelopes energy efficiency. A further 5% deduction is foreseen for renovation aimed at improving the building envelope’s winter and summer energy efficiency beyond the threshold set by the Ministerial Decree of 26 June 2015. While usual tax deduction for renovation is 65%, energy requalification projects concerning building envelopes and impacting on more than 25% of the dissipating surface will be favoured by a 70% tax deduction. Ī boost in building renovation has recently come from national legislation as tax deductions for renovation have been increased therefore encouraging deep intervention on building envelopes. According to Enea – the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development – the annual average thermal consumption of an Italian home is around 180 kWh/sqm, sometimes exceeding 280 kWh/sqm new constructions, on the other hand, which account approximately for 5-7% of existing buildings, consume less than 75 kWh/sqm per year. Most Italian and European building envelopes are not as energy efficient as needed hence energy retrofit would be auspicious. Within a climate of renewed attention to beauty and design in building construction, and under the spur of new fiscal incentives, one of the most interesting challenges contemporary architects are facing today is the issue of well-designed sustainable and energy saving building envelopes, be it simple coating solutions or more performing ones such as ventilated façades.
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