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EES 2015 - Multidisciplinary Symposium on
ENERGY, EFFICIENCY
AND SUSTAINABILITY
Red INVECA e.V.
Technische Universität Berlin
Geodätenstand
31.07.15 - 01.08.15
Symposium on Energy, Efficiency and Sustainability EES2015
DOUBLE SKIN FAÇADES, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION IN ARCHITECTURE
Learning from 20 years of experience in Germany
Renato D'Alençon Castrillón. M.Arch.
1
ABSTRACT
Some 20 years ago, the development of Double-skin Glass façades (DSFs) grew in Germany as a promising alternative
to address the well-known problems of curtain walls, particularly heat loss, over-heating and noise, by combining a
thermal buffer and sun protection in a ventilated glass chamber. The introduction and spread of DSFs was not only based
on technical innovations from the field of building physics, but also strongly fostered by a growing trend within
architectural practice, including social and aesthetic values, such as the construction of a corporate image or the
pervasiveness of fashionable and widely published buildings that served as examples.
In this paper, I discuss the articulation of the technical fundamentals and the social mechanisms that promoted the use of
DSFs in buildings in Germany starting in the 1990s, based on available documentation from patents, industry catalogues,
contemporary literature and ex-post evaluations of the buildings. I hold that DSFs make a case for a combined techno-
social development, far from linear or objective, but intertwined with a cultural and social elements suggesting a new
understanding of technical decisions presumed neutral. The case of DSFs shows how this process goes beyond objective
technical properties or performance, and needs to be accounted for and kept in mind in order to fully understand the
development and success or failure of technological innovations in architecture.
Keywords: double-glazed façades, innovation, energy efficiency, user acceptance.
1 FG Habitat Unit, Technische Universität Berlin, Raum A 621, Strasse des 17. Juni 152, 10623 Berlin, Germany dalenconcastrillon@tu-berlin.de
I. INTRODUCTION
Traditionally, the accounts of architecture tend to explain
it, either from a theoretical, aesthetic or historic point of
view. A closed narrative of historical events, theoretical
constructs or aesthetic fashions are offered side by side
the built work or the practice to attempt a parallel that
would deliver the necessary explanations and will thus
allow decoding it. Less often is it explained from inside
its own discipline and practice, intertwining the social and
the material dimensions in a bi-directional mode, where
not only external events provide a rationale for its
comprehension, but also its own dasein acts upon reality
beyond intentions or discourses and reveals its own
nature. Notorious exceptions such as Lewis Mumford’s
classic Technics and Civilization [1] are not enough to
build a systematic scholarship by any chance comparable
to that of architecture historians, still regrettably stuck in
the explanatory, plastic or theoretical approach to
architecture history.
Technical innovations, such as acoustics or environmental
performance have been barely included in the critical
agenda of architecture and remain to be problematized. In
particular, the properties of building envelopes were
articulated mostly in an aesthetical fashion, which
emphasized the plastic potentials of glazed fassades:
transparency, lightness, spatial continuitybut seldom in
environmental or user comfort terms.
Some 20 years ago, the development of Double-Skin
Glass Façades (DSFs) grew as a promising alternative to
address the well-known problems of curtain walls,
particularly heat loss, over-heating and sound insulation,
by combining a thermal and acoustic buffer space and sun
protection in a ventilated chamber between two layers of
glass (Fig. 1).
Figure 1. Bussiness Promotion Center, Duisburg, 1993.
One of the earliest examples of simple double
glazed façades. Arch.: Richard Rogers.
The claimed benefits of DSFs are [2]: the provision of a
protected space for installing sun shading and daylight
enhancing devices; the cavity is in the winter a buffer
zone reducing thermal losses; the double membrane is
effective in reducing noise from motor traffic.
42
Renato D'Alençon Castrillón: Doble Skin Façades, Technology and Innovation
II. ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK and METHOD
A conceptual framework relating technology and culture
in architecture is surprisingly not at the core of
architectural discourses. An analytical framework to
established such relation can be found in the field of
Science and Technology Studies (STS), as it offers a
comprehensive model for describing the process of
technological innovation involved and proposes
methodological tools that can be deployed for supporting
a cultural-technical analysis.
Drawing from this background, two central concepts can
be used in defining a conceptual background for this
work: “interpretative flexibility” and “relevant social
groups”. “Interpretative flexibility” is a concept meaning
that technological artefacts offer different meanings and
are open to different interpretations for different social
group. Phrased by Bijker and Pinch [3], interpretive
flexibility means:
"Technological artefacts are culturally constructed
and interpreted ... By this we mean not only that there
is flexibility in how people think of or interpret
artefacts but also that there is flexibility in how
artefacts are designed."
Other relevant concept is that of “relevant social groups”,
a socially defined group sharing a particular set of
meanings related to an artefact and “closure and
stabilization”, the process of the relevant social groups
reaching a consensus regarding the meaning of the
artefact. Most importantly, the process of social group
interpretation, meaning attachment, consensus,
stabilization, closure, is not a linear one. Newer, better
technologies are not preferred successively to older,
worse technologies, but this happens in parallel with
several competing technologies and in multiple directions,
so that prevailing technologies cannot be considered to be
best or the only one.
The method for applying this analysis framework can be
summarized in three steps: 1. identifying the social
groups; 2. describing the technology through the eyes of
the relevant social groups; 3. establishing the
interpretative flexibility of the technology.
I the following, I discuss the technical fundamentals and
the relevant social groups that fostered the use of DSFs in
Germany starting in the 1990s, based on documentation
available from patents, industry catalogues, contemporary
literature and ex-post evaluations of the buildings. Using
case studies, I document and trace the introduction and
spread of DSFs, which was not only based on technical
innovations from the field of building physics, but also
strongly fostered by a growing trend within architectural
practice, intertwined with other social and aesthetic
values, such as the construction of corporate image or the
pervasiveness of fashionable and widely published
buildings that served as examples. I hold that DSFs make
a case for an intertwined techno-social development, far
from linear or objective, but tainted with a variety of
cultural and social values suggesting a new understanding
technical decisions presumed neutral.
III. DSFs: FROM TRIAL TO UNSETTLING
Glazed façade designs have undergone in the last decades
substantial innovation by integrating specific elements to
adapt the mediation of the outside conditions and user
requirements, both in the quality of materials and
components and in the overall conception and design of
the façade system. These improvements include passive
measures, such as multi layered glazing, sun protections,
ventilations, etc. and are articulated in as double-layered
façades, ventilated façades or protected façades. The
literature has come to a number of definitions for these,
among which, a comprehensive one was proposed already
in 1999 by Compagno [4], naming them “intelligent glass
façades”:
“The “intelligence of a façade is not measured
primarily by how much it is driven by technology, but
by how it makes use of natural, renewable energy
sources, such as solar radiation, air flows and the
ground heat in as environmentally compatible way as
possible”.
A Double Skin Façade (DSF) system consists of an
exterior and interior glazing, with varying insulation,
ventilation and access strategies; an air cavity between the
exterior and interior glazing, with natural or hybrid
ventilation and thickness ranging between 10 cm to more
than 2m; a shading device, placed inside the cavity for
protection reasons; and openings in the external and
internal skin and sometimes ventilators, which allow the
ventilation of the cavity [5]. The control of the conditions
of the chamber, to insulate in winter conditions and
ventilate in summer conditions is the distinctive feature of
DSFs. Critical issues are the choice of the proper pane
type and shading device and the geometry and dimensions
of the design.
Even if DSFs can be used as an added façade, with the
cavities used mostly to reduce noise, contain solar
shading and light redirection devices, their full potential is
developed when they integrate the heating, cooling and
ventilating system of the building. The most usual case is
that of the building being ventilated using the cavity. This
is more cost effective as it reduces the demand on the
mechanical system, “the first alternative risk being a
building with a complete conventional HVAC system, with
the added cost of an expensive façade” [5].
A. Hallenseestrasse (1996): Trial and Error
One of the first buildings in using a buffer space as an
insulation chamber between two glass panes in Germany
is the Hallenseestrasse office building in Berlin (Archs.
Leon and Wohlhage), located on a site close to an urban
highway that was considered unbuildable because of
noise (Fig. 2). To meet the conditions of implementation,
43
D'Alençon Castrillón: Double Skin Façades, technology and innovation in Architecture
the building consists of a first trench of 3-story concrete,
the height of the retaining walls of the trench in the road,
staying in parking lots and services, and an upper part of 7
floors of office floors with curtain wall facades.
Figure 2. Hallenseestrasse Office Building. View of the
building from the south facade facing an urban
highway made it seem useless for acoustic
reasons.
On the south façade, which faces the road, is added to a
double skin ventilated facade to control combustion noise
and smoke, composed of two glass sheets with a 85 cm
chamber with interior glazing seal double glazing (WSG)
exterior with safety glass (ESG) reflecting, in addition to
sunscreen roll-curtains inside the chamber (Fig. 3).
Figure 3. Hallenseestrasse Office Building, The double
facade corridor allows to open windows to the
chamber and to ventilate to through ducts that
are housed under the overhang of the sill.
There is no direct air exchange to the outside but through
the chamber which in turn mechanically assisted
ventilation through air ducts closed within it. The double
facade is a "corridor", i.e. horizontal partition dividing the
chamber on each floor, which prevents the transfer of
noise by air from one floor to another even when users
can open the windows to influence the indoor individually
or have contact with the outside.
Figure 4. Hallenseestrasse Office Building. Interior office
space; that remains unused because of the poor
environmental performance of the building: on
the left; the hvac set up in an attempt to fix this.
The original purpose of the double skin in this case was to
reduce the impact of road noise. This led to the
overheating of the camera, oriented to the south, and the
ventilation was solved by the mechanical ductwork inside,
since the outer leaf is sealed. However, the camera will
develop high temperatures and is a problem for users to
open the windows even though they are operable, not only
in the summer situation. This experience shows that even
in a climate like that of Berlin, short summer (July and
August) temperature average of about 18 ° and extreme
rarely exceeding 28 °, overheating by solar radiation can
be transformed into a problematic consideration. The
problem led to the vacancy of several storeys of the
building for several years, and the problem had to be
resolved through the installation of air conditioning
equipment to replace the original radiators (Fig.4).
B. RWE Tower (1996): a patented building
In the RWE Tower in Essen (Archs. Ingehoven, Overdiek
und Partner) a choice is made for a cylindrical shape (Fig.
5) corresponding to the designer’s search for an optimal
ratio between the outer skin area and volume, as
compared to the pressure of wind and heat loss [6].
Vertical access is via lifts tower outside the main
cylindrical volume and the floors are organized from the
lifts on two service cores interior corridor access and
perimeter zone office. In addition to a double glazed
façade, the building has a central ventilation system in a
technical storey located in an intermediate floor.
44
Renato D'Alençon Castrillón: Doble Skin Façades, Technology and Innovation
Figure 5. RWE Headquarters Archs Ingehoven, Overdiek
und Partner (1996). General View.
The double facade is of box type with alternating intake
and output in a single element of the façade, which
delivers to the chamber through vents also placed
alternately (Fig. 6). Each chamber front is a dual inlet-
outlet chamber that is open to the outside through the
windows above and admissions can be opened to allow
direct control of natural ventilation by users over the
terms of the mechanical system building. When weather
conditions prevent the opening of windows, ventilation is
provided by an air conditioning plant placed on an
intermediate level with a capacity sized air exchange to
this effect.
Figure 6. RWE Headquarters. Detail of the ventilated
chamber inlet-outlet. 1. Double façade external
glass; 2. Interior glass façade with operable
window; 3. Inlet and vent to the outside of each
module; 4. Admission profile; 5. Outlet profile;
6. Input grid to the chamber; 7. Heating
radiators under floor level; 8. Sun protections
blinds inside the chamber
In the implementation of this building, several actors can
be identified to have vested interests in the development
of this technology: the architects, the owners and the
façade producers. The architects’ interest is reflected in a
self-published volume [6]:
“The design demonstrates a high degree of energy
efficiency, recognising the constraints of natural
resources, and incorporating them to advantage in the
architecture and technology of the building”.
The colaboration of an industrial partner and a consultant
for façades design is usual practice in a building of this
maginitude. Less often is the industry’s interest so strong
as to be cautioned with the filing of a patent on a
ventilation for a high-rise with double-façades “Lüftung
für Hochhäuser mit Doppelfassade” Patent 652407a2 [7]:
Figure 7. Descriptive from Patent 652407a2. Source:
Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA)
Database DEPATIS
It is notorious from the round-shaped design in the patents
documentation (Fig. 7) that it is a case-specific patent,
referring to the design of RWE and not a generic solution,
showing the entire system of ventilation of the façade
modules and the centralized system. The building is thus
in itself a full-scale trial where the industry tests a new
system.
C. GSW (1999): Icon Reference for Architects
Figure 8. GSW Headquarters Berlin: double glazed
ventilated façade
45
D'Alençon Castrillón: Double Skin Façades, technology and innovation in Architecture
The GSW Headquarters, in Berlin, (Archs. Sauerbruch
and Hutton) (Fig. 8) is a very representative case of DSFs
because of the wide publicity it received from the
architectural press. The building, completed in 1999, has
been of big influence in the architecture milieu, because
of its very strong and plastic image, and is one of the
main responsible for the spread of DSFs among
Architects (Fig 9).
Figure 9. GSW Headquarters Berlin: official publication
about the building by the architects [8]
According to the authors, the natural ventilation strategy
is a central component of the energy strategy. Because of
the low floor-to-floor height, predefined to 3,25 m by an
existing tower, the thickness of the new building was
limited for purposes of natural lighting, reaching 11 m in
the deepest section. This narrow plan allowed cross
ventilation (Fig. 10), which was expected to allow
reductions of 27°C indoors with 32°C outside, without
refrigeration, using a “peak looping” system [9].
The buoyancy in the chamber cross ventilates in
complement with louvered operable elements in the east
façade, and with plenum floor and mechanical ventilation
for extreme season situations. The system is centrally
controlled with override allowance by the users. The
natural ventilation DSFs in summer conditions and the
insulating buffer in winter conditions are the main,
alternating features that have turned them very used by
architects.
Figure 10. GSW Headquarters Berlin: Diagram of the
ventilation scheme, widely published to explain
the operation of the building
However, it is not yet clearly defined if and how does the
system work in the summer, and further study is required
to establish this for this and other DSF buildings. One of
the most comprehensive post-ocupational studies about
DSF was conducted by the Technical University of
Braunschweig under the title EVA – Evaluierung von
Energiekonzepten and considered this building as one of
the emblematic cases to be studied, yet surprisingly the
results of the evaluation were not published in the Final
Report [10].
C. Post Tower (2002): Corporate Image
In the Deutsche Post Tower in Bonn (Murphy / Jahn
Archs.) the air is tempered in the DSF cavity in the
winter, or ventilated by buoyancy during the summer.
Movable panes (Fig. 11) allow for additional air
admission in the chamber, which is then more porous than
typical DSFs, enhancing ventilation of the chamber. The
building can be naturally ventilated mainly in spring and
autumn, and the mechanical system operates primarily in
extreme conditions of summer and winter.
Figure 11. Deutsche Post Headquarters. The double
fronted in this case is permeable on each floor
with its louvered facade design, with horizontal
glass hatches.
46
Renato D'Alençon Castrillón: Doble Skin Façades, Technology and Innovation
After being tempered in the intermediate buffer, the air is
drawn into the decentralized air supply units (FSL,
Fassaden System Lüftung provided by Trox) are placed
below floor level, taking air from the double façade
chamber and injecting it into the work spaces. The
exhaust air is conducted to the nine story high “Sky
Courts” (Fig. 12) where it is used for heating, and then
exhausted centrally [11]. In addition to ventilation, the
decentralized units also regulate the temperature of the
intake air. The building can be ventilated naturally,
mainly in spring and autumn, the mechanical system
operating in extreme conditions of summer and winter.
Figure 12. Deutsche Post Headquarters. Sky court scheme
and 7 story high ventilated facade.
Research conducted in generic mockups by the producer
indicates that the cooling loads and overall energy
demand are roughly comparable to those of a central
HVAC system (Fig 13). Advantages that continue to be
mentioned are: lower energy requirements for distribution
of the conditioned air mass; lower construction costs and
simpler implementation and maintenance; individual
control of the temperature and ventilation rates.
In comparison to other examples, the approach of the DSF
in the Post Bank is mixed, both in the side of the DSF, by
including additional ventilation possibilities with the
louvered outer skin, and in the side of the mechanical
ventilation, by avoiding a centralized system, sparing the
space for the central units and for the ductwork in every
floor level.
The building profited from the earlier experiences from
other cases and included mechanical ventilation with the
support of the providers, and solved some of the problems
other DSFs had by breaking the height of the DSF in
sections allowing the external glass to be ventilated not
only at the bottom and the top.
Figure 13. Deutsche Post Headquarters. Ventilated double
facade multiple is high, but it can be outward on
each floor through glazed hinged hatches.
Furthermore, besides the fulfilment of the goals of other
actors, such as the architects and the mechanical systems
providers, the building is especially important as a
corporate image used by the Deutsche Post to enhance its
image as a modern, dynamic enterprise (Fig 14), a usual
goal for companies deciding to use glass façades.
Figure 14. Deutsche Post Headquarters. Deutsche Post
Stamp presenting the HQ Building as an icon representing
the corporate identity of the company
IV. EVALUATION AND CONTROVERSY
It is not yet clearly defined if and how does these system
work in the summer, and further study is required to
establish this for this and other DSF buildings. The
abundant literature [2] [4] [12] on the study and
modelling of DSFs prior to their construction, supports a
47
D'Alençon Castrillón: Double Skin Façades, technology and innovation in Architecture
general optimism regarding their qualities, in particular
the idea that double façades with buffer spaces
significantly improve the thermal insulation capacities of
the glazed solutions, a critical item in the regulation
requirements. However, these claims are controversial.
Only a few contemporary authors, notoriously Dr. Gertis
contested the presumed advantages of the DSFs [13]:
“(…) Conclusion: Simulations cannot be relied on,
practical measurements are lacking. Here is a lot to
catch up. It becomes, however, apparent that GDFs –
apart for special cases – are unsuitable for our local
climate from the building physics point of view”
In the 2000s, several initiatives undertook comprehensive
evaluations [5] [10] as suggested by Prof. Gertis, thus
reflecting a widespread success of DSFs in the building
industry. Nevertheless, the state of knowledge in the area
was and remains not to be conclusive regarding their
performance because there were only a few post-
occupational studies of DSFs. These studies recognize the
lack of information about the measured performance of
completed buildings, the need to validate the design-stage
modelling and for a general assessment of their energy
demand, environmental impact and pay-back period.
V. CONCLUSION
The introduction and spread of DSFs was not only based
on technical innovations and expected improved
performance, but also strongly fostered by a growing
trend within architectural practice, intertwined with other
social and aesthetic values, such as the construction of a
corporate image or the pervasiveness of fashionable and
widely published buildings that served as examples.
Several DSFs buildings were constructed with only a
general idea about their environmental performance, on a
trial and error fashion. Patents came usually after the
design, consolidating a technical development that was
intertwined with the design of specific buildings that
served as probes.
By the time several books and studies came to document
them DSFs were already an established practice within
the trade. Later, other initiatives attempted to provide
guidelines for optimizing their design, and although
relatively scattered, attempts have also been made to
evaluate their post-occupation energy efficiency, with
diverging results. None of these has been conclusive
about the energetic or economic validity of DSFs, neither
their benefits nor their failure. The case of DSFs shows
how the innovation process goes beyond objective
technical properties or performance, and needs to be
accounted for and kept in mind in order to fully
understand the development and success or failure of
technological innovations in architecture.
The same design is object of different perspectives and
claims of the involved actors, namely: the architects, for
whom the design is demonstrative of a high degree of
energy efficiency; the façade industry for which the tower
is a test site for a new ventilated façade to be patented; the
owner for which the tower is an icon corporation image to
be used in public relations and publicity; and the
administration, dealing with the actual performance based
on direct experience from daily operation and direct costs.
At the same time, all of them subscribe the general claim
of an efficient, ecological building for different reasons
and from their own perspectives; a claim that is at odds
with inconclusive evaluations and is rather a rhetorical
closure of an unsettled controversy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is part of the author’s doctoral dissertation,
financed by CONICYT and DAAD.
REFERENCES
[1] Mumford, L. Technics and civilization. New York:
Harcourt, 1934.
[2] Blum, Hans-Jürgen. Doppelfassaden. Berlin: Ernst,
2001, pp.10.
[3] Bijker, W. and Pinch, T. The Social Construction of
Facts and Artifacts. In: Bijker, Pinch, Hughes (Eds.).
Press The Social Construction of Technological
Systems. Cambridge: MIT Press 1986, pp. 41.
[4] Compagno, A. Intelligente Glasfassaden / Intelligent
Glass Façades: Material, Anwendung, Gestaltung /
Material, Practice, Design. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2002.
[5] Blomsterberg, A. BESTFAÇADE: Best Practice for
Double Skin Façades. WP 5 Best Practice Guidelines,
2007, pp. 31.
[6] Briegleb, T. Ingenhoven, Overdiek und Partner -
High Rise RWE AG Essen, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel,
1999.
[7] Lüftung für Hochhäuser mit Doppelfassade. Patent
652407a2, granted May 10th 1995, filed November
9th 1994 . Josef Gartner & Co. Werkstätten für Stahl-
und Metallkonstruktionen, Gundelfingen
[8] Sauerbruch, M., Hutton, L., GSW Hauptverwaltung
Berlin, Sauerbruch Hutton Architekten. Baden:
Müller, 2000.
[9] Wigginton, M. and Harris, J. Intelligent Skins.
Oxford [u.a.]: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2002, pp. 51.
[10] Fisch, M. EVA – Evaluierung von Energiekonzepten.
Abschlussbericht, 2007.
[11] Fassaden System Lüftung GmbH FSL.
Projektinformation POST TOWER. 2002. On-li
resource (accessed 2010-01-14):
http://www.troxtechnik.de/xpool/download/de/techni
cal_documents/air_water_systems/projects/pi_fsl_2_
zuluft_4c.pdf
[12] Knaack, U., et.al. Façades: Principles of
Construction. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2007.
[13] Gertis, K. Sind neuere fassadenentwicklungen
bauphysikalisch sinnvoll? Teil2: Glas-
Doppelfassaden (GDF). Bauphysik 21, 1999, pp. 54–
66.
48
Impressum
EES 2015 Symposium was held at the Technische Universität Berlin during July 31st and August 1st,
2015 at the Geodätenstand, kindly lent to the event by the Institut für Geodäsie und Geoinformations-
technik of TU-Berlin. The building was constructed in 1953, designed for scientic research purposes
as well as for teaching and is now declared as a listed monument. It is located in the main building of
the University in the Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin.
Bibliographic Information published by Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliograe; detailed bibliographic data is available in the
Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de
ISBN: 978-3-86219-589-3
URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0002-35890
© 2015, kassel university press GmbH, Kassel
www.upress.uni-kassel.de/
Cover page: Geisers at El Tatio, Chile. Image kindly provided by ProChile
