Performance Based Façade Design

• Evaluate façade performance beyond aesthetics and compliance
• Understand when to use simulations, tests, or prototypes
• Assess façade components for thermal, daylight, solar control, and acoustic behaviour
• Integrate multi-domain performance criteria into early-stage design decisions
• Weigh trade-offs between comfort, sustainability, and cost efficiency

• Understand performance-based façade design and the key evaluation criteria — structure, energy, comfort, and cost. You’ll learn how to use KPIs, simulations, and lab tests, and when to move beyond compliance-based approaches.
• Learn how façades carry and transfer loads. You’ll explore stiffness, safety factors, and limit states, and understand how façades respond to fire and seismic actions.
• Focus on energy and thermal behavior. You’ll study heat transfer (conduction, convection, radiation), U-values, and thermal bridges, along with moisture control, condensation risks, and strategies for energy-efficient comfort.
• Examine how façades manage light and solar gains. You’ll learn about t-vis, g-values, glare control, and shading systems, understanding how to balance aesthetics, comfort, and energy use.
• Explore how façades affect sound insulation and overall comfort. You’ll quantify acoustic performance and see how thermal, visual, and spatial factors interact to shape user well-being.
• Apply all previous concepts to real projects. You’ll analyze integrated façade performance, commissioning, lifecycle costs, and the link between technical results and strategic design decisions.

The course is led by experts from TU Delft, TU Darmstadt and Eurac Research. In addition to virtual visits, the course offers a peek behind-the-scenes at how circular design principles are applied in manufacturing and architectural firms.

Alessandra Luna Navarro

TU Delft

Ulrich Knaack

TU Delft

Miren Juaristi Gutierrez

Eurac Research

More details soon.