Priorities in Building Envelope Design

Sustainability of the building investment depends upon the technological capability of buildings to facilitate their upgrading of systems, to meet changing expectations of building users, and adequacy of financial return on investment to building owners. There is a need for the development of guidelines to be used by the building design team to ensure that the approach to design and construction will facilitate capability for replacement of systems. The focus of this paper is on the development of guidelines for design for replaceability of building envelope systems in tall buildings. Examples of failures and replacements of building envelope components in a variety of climatic zones are reviewed in Saudi Arabia, the United States, Singapore, and Australia. A summary of an international survey of architects and engineers in nine countries, namely, the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore, Spain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, on priorities in building envelope design, is presented in the form of guidelines.