Chapter 1 - Global Change & Sustainability
Reece Wood
Business Leader | Managing Partner, Building Transformation, Passionate about maintaining and bringing beautiful buildings back to life.
Is Greater Fa?ade Sustainability Achieved Through New Material Innovation or Innovations In Fa?ade Management?
Chapter 1 - Global Change & Sustainability
As the global economy tries to recover from its last dip, huge investments are being made in the construction industry, both in established and emerging markets. It’s anticipated that the volume of construction output will grow by more than 70% to achieve an annual worth of $15 trillion worldwide by 2025 (Source: Global Construction Perspectives Report). As the world changes, traditional communications continue to fragment, opportunities and a desire for a better standard of living has created a wave of urbanisation. By 2050 it is anticipated that there will be an extra 2 billion city dwellers across the globe (Source: Global Construction Perspectives Report).
Migration combined with city gentrification and the desire of the wealthy to have more space may seem as though it would result in an unsustainable process of change where urbanisation meets traditional communications, where there are no boundaries, just one unsustainable sprawl and mass of built environments.
“To achieve a lasting transition towards sustainability, large scale conversion of our built environments, cities, transport & power generation is key. Infrastructure built today determines tomorrow’s burdens.”
(Source: Helga Weisz, Lead Editor for Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.)
Sustainability can only achieved if both developed and developing countries take the same or similar action, working with an agreed common global goal, considering the context of the future, natural resources & innovation; each country, designer and construction company supporting the same common global goal rather than individual agendas. Innovation of new energy efficiency products, optimising current fa?ade space to create more sustainable building, proactively protecting current built fa?ade assets, integrating transport systems and increasing resourcefulness will all need to work together to support a more sustainable global future.
In this article we review the current options available to increase fa?ade performance and its contribution towards creating a more sustainable built environment. We consider design and material innovation along with exploring new, proactive and unique fa?ade management and protection strategies that are designed to enhance the fa?ade performance, support commercial objectives and prolong architectural design intent whilst also reducing resource requirements for new developments.
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