Sustainable simplicity and the future of exterior wall for research and education buildings

Today, there is a shift towards sustainable simplicity in facades, embracing material innovations and thermal design strategies for long-term sustainability. Trends in material science and technology suggest a return to historic design thinking through advancements in materials science and engineering performance. From our collective experience as architects, we anticipate a trend towards simpler facade design compositions with vastly embedded technology and material science to highlight this façade of the future. This is particularly acute with federal and state government institutions that focus solely on their rate of return (ROI) in these long-term asset investments. Public universities are uniquely concerned about the value of building and façade expenditure that supports an environmental value without being overly ornamentation-al or self-aggrandising. The complex facades of current research, science, and institutional buildings are a unique opportunity for exploration for public institution budget investments due to of the correlation between highly controlled performance facades and the desire to provide value to institutions and their constituent budgets.

The 140-year history of the curtain wall façade provides valuable guidance on the evolution of material technology, material science, operational, and environmental considerations to suggest the future trajectory of the building enclosure – a trend towards prefabrication, increased component sizes, carbon reduction, decreased maintenance, and comprehensive cost modelling. As the historical trajectory evolves, vanity in design defers institutional design creativity, leading to a layered composition of material, technology, and aesthetics.