The new language of airport façades

In this discussion, Rajan Govind highlights the integral role played by façades in airport architecture and function. He walks us through how facades can be designed to integrate daylight effectively and ensure fire safety and how intelligent façade designs contribute to achieving airport green building certifications.

How can airport façades be designed to integrate daylight effectively, reducing the need for artificial lighting?
Airport façades generally cover large volumes of space (double or triple height), which gives great potential to maximise daylight and reduce artificial lighting. Good facade designs with optimised daylight and shading for energy efficiency can achieve efficient functional facades with better user comfort. These well-designed trends are currently available in several newly built airports, using larger glass units for enhanced transparency and aesthetics.

What are the new, innovative materials available for designing facades in Indian airports? How do these foster sustainability?
As airports are large structures with huge energy consumption, various cladding materials, including terracotta, glass-reinforced concrete, shading screens, and timber-looking aluminium, have been explored recently. These materials are less processed, have a low carbon footprint, and provide energy-efficient facade solutions.

How do façade designs contribute to achieving green building certifications for airports?  
Energy efficiency of facades is highly increased with high-performance materials such as low-E-coated glass, insulation, etc. It is possible to achieve the highest rating (platinum) with glass facades using high-performance insulated glazing. Furthermore, solar panels can be integrated with facade designs wherever possible, such as skylights, sunshades, and horizontal features, which will maximise the sustainability aspects contributed by facade elements.

How can fire safety be ensured while designing facades for airports?
Fire safety is an important factor to consider while designing facades, as airports are transit hubs with huge passenger inflows. It is important to ensure that facades do not use any combustible material and that the materials comply with all the necessary standards. Facades should be designed to work closely in integration with MEP and fire-fighting systems, with provisions for smoke vents. These measures will ensure that facades do not pose any fire risk and ensure occupant safety.

How can airport facades be designed to minimise heat gain and loss, reduce HVAC loads, and improve energy efficiency?
A wide range of high-performing glazing products with solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) values as low as 0.25 is available widely. These products can be further enhanced with good shading designs, addressing the challenges of hot and humid climates. Today, architects and designers have no limitations on their creative ideas to make functional and highly energy-efficient facades.

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