Implementation of a Ventilated Façade on a Multi-Dwelling Building in Practice

A review of the history of construction reveals that transport infrastructure has had a major influence on urban development. People began to move from rural areas to cities, as this provided them with better and faster connections to other places. For the contact façade, she used two different types of thermal insulation to calculate implementation costs and compared them in terms of cost. She found that the cost of implementing a contact façade is influenced by the choice of thermal insulation, whilst the cost of a ventilated façade is influenced by the façade cladding. Regardless of the thermal insulation and façade cladding, the cost of implementing a ventilated façade is almost twice that of a contact façade.

Problem

A review of the history of construction reveals that transport infrastructure has had a major influence on urban development. People began to move from rural areas to cities, as this provided them with better and faster connections to other places. With increasing migration and congestion in city centres, municipal authorities began to seek solutions for accommodating the growing number of residents.

As they were limited by space, it was necessary to build upwards. This resulted in today's blocks of flats, tower blocks and multi-dwelling buildings. In the present day, when the requirements for nearly zero-energy, self-sufficient buildings are ever greater, the choice of façade system is of key importance.

The author of the diploma thesis researched façade systems and their materials. She described the composition of contact and ventilated façades and the properties of individual layers.

Solution and Method

For the contact façade, she used two different types of thermal insulation to calculate implementation costs and compared them in terms of cost. To calculate the costs of the ventilated façade, she carried out a calculation for two different façade claddings, assuming they require the same substructure. She also compared the costs of the ventilated façade with each other.

For easier presentation, she entered all calculations into tables and then compared them.

Results

She found that the cost of implementing a contact façade is influenced by the choice of thermal insulation, whilst the cost of a ventilated façade is influenced by the façade cladding. Regardless of the thermal insulation and façade cladding, the cost of implementing a ventilated façade is almost twice that of a contact façade. As the costs of a façade system do not end with implementation, she also calculated the maintenance costs of contact and ventilated façades, recorded them in tables and then compared them.

Maintenance of a ventilated façade after 15 years is almost eight times lower than maintenance of a contact façade. Finally, she calculated the thermal transmittance of both façades and optimised the thickness of the thermal insulation. She recalculated the implementation costs based on the optimised thermal insulation thickness and compared them.

The ventilated façade is still almost twice as expensive as the contact façade. Lastly, she also included CO2 emissions in the diploma thesis. For easier comparison of both façades, she calculated maintenance costs over 30 years.

She concluded that the initially lower cost of the contact façade is deceptive, as with maintenance over 30 years, the cost of the contact façade is almost three times greater than the initial investment. The same applies to CO2 emissions. As maintenance costs increase, so do CO2 emissions, which is unacceptable for sustainable construction.