Towards a Human Centred Approach for Adaptive Façades

Adaptive façades are multifunctional systems that are able to change their functions, features, or behaviour over time in response to changing boundary conditions or performance requirements. As one of the significant developments in the façade industry over the last decade, the adaptive façade offers an intelligent solution that can decrease energy consumption and potentially increase users’ comfort in a building. From an engineering perspective, these advanced technologies aim to improve the overall performance of the building while generating a better indoor environment for the users, but unfortunately, investigations show that this goal is not always achieved. This is why, to bridge this performance gap, we embark on a change of perspective in façade design, from a technology-centred to a human-centred one. This research emphasizes that, with their changeability aspects, adaptive façade technologies offer unique potential, although the design of such façades requires a deeper understanding of users. With this as its focus, this paper aims to identify the factors affecting the user experience in a working environment, considering the interactions of the user with building services and façade systems from a holistic point of view, in which façade-user relationships are to be distinguished, towards the larger aim of developing a human-centred approach for adaptive façade design.