The Living Façade: Mashrabbia; a Kinetic Envelope Improves Building Energy Performance

How to make buildings acclimate to the climate has been the challenge of architecture for Thermal comfort. Reducing the outdoor high temperature differences is still the significance of building energy efficiency. In particular, there are many locations with great daily or seasonal variation in climatic temperature. Currently, the common strategies for addressing this wide temperature range of climate are the HVAC (Heat-ing, Ventilating and Air-conditioning) systems. Much energy is needed in these locations for indoor thermal comfort.There are many studies focusing on the high-tech or high-efficient HVAC system to save energy. However, we believe the fundamental point is orientation, materials and other design strategies rather than external treatment like the HAVC system.This paper proposes a possible solution for coping with hot- climate architecture utilizing advanced building technologies with vernacular architectural elements. The resulting system will intelligently provide thermal comfort, natural energy and reduce energy usage of HVAC. This system is a bio-inspired dynamic envelope responding to solar radiation and local climate conditions. In order to explore the enve-lope system, this paper reviews important litera-tures related to biomimetic design in architecture and kinetic/interactive building envelope applications. A new Parametric Design method in Building Information Modeling (BIMPD) and computational simulation is used in this paper. In short, buildings have be inspired place – both culturally and environmentally. The Living Facade isanattempt to preserve the Islamic character and culture with a strong climatic response and energy efficient design