The most exciting innovations and serious attention in the construction industries for the past 10 to 20 years has focused on ‘the skin of buildings’ —the public facade that we all see whether we enter a building or not—because this is universally acknowledged as the most critical part of a building for all the reasons that count.

This is where control of moisture, energy efficiency, solar heat gain and sustainable practices can best be addressed. It is also where the biggest growth in new building technology has occurred, spawning new materials, new systems and entire new fields of construction activity such as lightweight composites, smart building controls, automated daylighting and other systems.

This article will explore the way fabric facades are a vital part of this growth and perhaps the fastest growing segment of fabric architecture production.

Materials for Tensile Fabric Systems

From historical and cultural to functional and aesthetical significance, façade materials can define the building’s identity. In addition to imparting robustness and durability, sustainable façade materials play a significant role in terms of their impact on the environment as well as inhabitants. Materials should also be selected based on constructability and availability of skilled labour. Higher upfront costs associated with durable and easy-to-maintain materials can often be offset by cost savings over time.

Glass is unarguably the most popular façade material in use today. Large glass windows come with the advantages of creating a connection to the outdoors while also providing ample daylighting and ventilation, which can positively affect mental wellbeing and productivity. However, these benefits must be evaluated against detrimental impacts on energy performance.

As architects of your structure, it is our responsibility to ensure that these glazing units are enhanced with appropriate performance coatings suitable to the local climate. Using Tensile Fabric Systems to reduce solar glare and diffuse the light around the space can not only reduce the impact of the glass façade but can made the space more enjoyable for its inhabitants.

Green walls too not only add character to building façades but can also act as air purifiers and sound insulators. Take a look at our green wall solutions here >

When concrete façades are desired, precast panels offer many advantages compared to conventional cast-in-place concrete. It uses less water, can be reused, permits faster construction, and maintains better quality over time.  Fabric facades can be added to concrete exteriors to provide a visually stimulating and modern design. When combined with modular technology and digital manufacturing, these can offer tremendous cost and time savings, besides high precision.

Metal can be considered as one of the most sustainable façade materials in terms of maintenance, reuse, and recycling. Combined with good insulation and measures to mitigate reflective heat, they can alleviate performance concerns and last an entire lifetime. Metal façades, however, must be designed with thermal breaks between exterior and interior spaces since metals are excellent conductors of heat.

Energy Efficiency with Tensile Structures

Orientation plays an important role in determining the amount of solar radiation, daylight, and/or prevailing winds that can be captured to improve and reduce costs. Our fabric covered walkway on Penzance Quay was designed and engineered with demountable capacity providing the ability to take it down in the case of bad weather, or as the sailing season ends.

Using materials with high thermal mass can moderate the impact of extreme temperature variations in hot and dry climates by creating a thermal lag, therefore stabilising indoor temperature. In the warmer summer months, natural ventilation through the building ‘skin’ can help remove excess moisture in the air, resulting in a reduction in the load placed on cooling systems. Similarly, in cold weather, compact form with small arrangements of windows can help to minimise the amount of heat loss through the building envelope.

The Aesthetic Benefits of Fabric Facades

Perhaps you’re designing a new building and want the flexibility of changing its look. Whether it’s an older building or multi-story car park that needs to be modernised with a fresh new facade, Arc Structures have the experience and skills needed to successfully integrate lightweight, versatile fabric cladding systems into the design, offering immediate results.

The engineered system can be permanent or temporary. Our fabrics come in a wide range of colours, and they can be easily printed allowing your building to blend in or boldly stand out, depending on your requirements. Fabric cladding has many benefits including:

• Solar glare
• Solar gain reduction
• Rapid installation
• Low maintenance

SIZE

Additionally, tensile fabric can be manufactured in virtually any size and shape. When thinking about size, it is important to consider how fabrics will stretch when they are pulled to create tension. The size of each panel is typically derived from a computer-generated model, which is then modified to account for the way fabric will change during installation.

COLOUR

When it comes to tensile fabrics, white is by far the industry standard. By using a light-coloured fabric, you can effectively reduce the amount of heat that is attracted to the building, making it a more sustainable choice. Additionally, when working with PTFE, white can be a beneficial choice performance-wise, since the material is naturally bleached by UV light. That being said, many manufacturers offer tensile fabrics in a wide variety of vibrant colours.

TRANSLUCENCY

PVC coated polyester can be manufactured with varying levels of transparency and light transmission, ranging from very transparent to completely opaque. PTFE varies in translucency, the quality of light that is transmitted is colour balanced, diffused and free of shadows and glare. In many cases, ETFE is very transparent. However, ETFE foil can be fritted similarly to laminated glass products, to allow for greater opacity. In general, translucent fabric membranes can be harnessed to softly diffuse light and create stunning naturally lit spaces.

Performance of Fabric Façade Architecture

ACOUSTICS

Similar to thermal insulation, tensile fabric structures are available with acoustical liners, that can effectively alter reverberation time and increase speech intelligibility within a space.

MAINTENANCE

Tensile fabric structures are lauded for their ease of maintenance. That said, many manufacturers recommend that fabric structures undergo an annual inspection, in order to ensure that every part is functioning properly.

RAINWATER

Tensile fabric structures should be designed to channel water to the perimeter and run off naturally. Many manufacturers can also install gutters, which will redirect any water to the ground and away from the structure.

SNOW

Snow loading can be a challenging aspect of tensile structure, as snow will not simply flow off the structure in the same way that water will. Some structures, which are prone to ponding, harness integrated heating to melt any show that tries to settle in.

Fabric Façades with Arc Structures

Tensile structures are lightweight, strong, durable systems that offer architects formal flexibility in ways other building materials cannot. The most alluring qualities of fabric include the diffusion of light, acoustic dampening, and the ability to span large areas uninterrupted.

To modernise, elevate or simply protect your building’s façade, get in contact with one of our friendly experts today.

Alternatively, read about one of our most recent project – working at the Silverstone Race Circuit >