On the Prospects of the Building Envelope in the Context of Smart Sustainable Cities: A Brief Review

Heiko Liebhart () and Jan Cremers
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Heiko Liebhart: Hochschule für Technik Stuttgart
Jan Cremers: Hochschule für Technik Stuttgart

Chapter 19 in iCity. Transformative Research for the Livable, Intelligent, and Sustainable City, 2022, pp 295-305 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract According to the World Urbanization Prospects of the United Nations (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2018), about 68% of the overall expected world population is going to live in urban areas and cities by the year 2050. The task of transforming modern cities towards a more sustainable and ecological as well as socially likeable environment touches a plethora of disciplines like transportation, energy infrastructure, architecture, building physics, etc. and poses an intricate challenge for architects, engineers, urban planners and social scientist alike. Thanks to the technological evolution, the realization of smart city concepts and solutions has become a viable option to contribute to this goal in a significant manner. The building envelope as an indispensable part of human dwellings and working space has historically mostly taken the classic functionalities of resembling aesthetic expression and providing physical protection. Recent and upcoming technological developments will enable a shift in the role of the building envelope from its mere classical functionalities towards additional contributions to the sustainability and livability of the environment. The prospects of these contributions range from increasing the thermal and visual comfort of the inhabitants and the surrounding environment by adaptive architectural measures towards potential energy saving by energy harvesting devices and synergetic processing and treatment of material flows of the building to provide conditioned air, preprocessed water and even food. In this short essay, we will elaborate on the phenomenon of smart city in general and the role of the building envelope in the context of modern smart city development and its potential on the improvement on different aspects of life and urban environment.

Keywords: Building envelope; Building simulation; Adaptive architecture; Energy harvesting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-92096-8_19

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-92096-8_19

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