INTELLIGENT GLASS FACADES.INTELLIGENT GLASS FACADES By Andrea Compagno. Basel: Birkhauser, 1999, DM98 Twenty-five years ago glass facades to buildings were regarded as architecturally passe pas·sé adj. 1. No longer current or in fashion; out-of-date. 2. Past the prime; faded or aged. [French, past participle of passer, to pass, from Old French; see and ecologically irresponsible. Now they are seen as the natural skin for urban buildings and, when properly designed, as the best for environmental control as they can harness the energy gain from solar radiation solar radiation, n the emission and diffusion of actinic rays from the sun. Overexposure may result in sunburn, keratosis, skin cancer, or lesions associated with photosensitivity. . So that glass facades may be worthy of their new status, they must be well designed, hence the importance of a book like this which sets out the issues simply. The first edition of this book was published four years ago, but the technology is developing fast, and this new edition has new buildings and new projects. The book is in six sections; the first deals with glass as a material, followed by the glass pane A rectangular area within an on-screen window that contains information for the user. A window may have many panes. See menu pane. , laminated glass Noun 1. laminated glass - glass made with plates of plastic or resin or other material between two sheets of glass to prevent shattering safety glass, shatterproof glass glass - a brittle transparent solid with irregular atomic structure , insulating glass, facades and finally intelligent glass facades. Most architects will head for the last chapter. It soon becomes clear that designing a building to reduce energy consumption is a complicated business, involving the whole building, not just the facades. It also becomes clear that many of the most effective ways of reducing energy consumption are expensive to install and operate and the owners will never recoup recoup To sell an asset at a price sufficient to recover the original outlay or to offset a previous loss. this cost through lower fuel bills. So the motivation behind some of the elaborate facades in this book must be idealistic i·de·al·is·tic adj. Of, relating to, or having the nature of an idealist or idealism. i  de·al·is , not financial. The science still has
some way to go, but we should all be grateful that so many building
owners are willing to pay so that the technology can advance towards the
economical, environmentally-friendly buildings that we all need.
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