Best practice guidelines for double skin facades

Many modern office buildings have highly glazed facades. Their energy efficiency and indoor climate is, however, being questioned. Therefore more and more of these buildings are being built with double skin facades, which can provide: a thermal buffer zone, energy savings, wind protection with open windows, fire protection, aesthetics, solar preheating of ventilation air, sound protection, pollutant protection with open windows, nocturnal cooling and a site for incorporation of PV cells. However not all double skin facades built during the last years perform well. A project BESTFACADE was therefore funded by the European Commission to actively promote the concept of double skin facades. An important part of this work is the creation of best practice guidelines for double skin facades, which are outlined in this paper