ABSTRACT
Active façade technologies are intended to automatically or semi-automatically respond to performance conditions. The rapidly advancing technology of the building envelope exceeds individual abilities to design and manage as architects strive to maintain professional ownership of the façade. An exploration of high-performance active building enclosures must examine seven interconnected arenas: (1) concepts of performance, (2) sensoring and reacting, (3) performance metrics, (4) wicked problems, (5) information systems, (6) collaboration management, and (7) responsive futures. There are significant changes coming for the future of adaptive and responsive building enclosures, and widespread implementation of adaptive and responsive façades will require a number of obstacles to be overcome. Research in architecture is notoriously slow and underfunded, and financial support for this work is quite modest. Without academic and industry research, it is not likely that there will be significant improvements.
