Supporting Sustainable Design with Fabric Structures
With sustainable design at the forefront of architecture in the 21st century, Fabritecture is focused on using construction processes that reduce energy consumption, utilizing materials that can be fully recycled or that have Cradle to Cradle certification, and specifying materials with thermally efficient properties (such as AeroLite) to reduce running costs of the completed structure.
The essence of sustainable design is to produce products and supply services in a way that reduces the use of non-renewable resources, minimizes environmental impact, and lowers carbon footprint.
Architectural fabric structures have been in use since first introduced in the early 1960’s for temporary expositions. The major benefits were their ability to enclose large spaces with little material and with minimal impact on the environment. Essentially, these early structures were fine examples of sustainable design. With a lifespan of over 30 years, these structures have proven themselves as a permanent structures having been used in retail malls, airports, sports facilities and schools.
When it comes to ensuring sustainability for fabric structures, the three major components are Design, Materials and Construction.
Design
Benefits of fabric structures include: natural lighting during the day which reduces the need for artificial lighting, UV protection which reduces the risk of skin cancer, water collection which is then used for irrigating plants and other services, solar shading which reduces energy on a building’s mechanical system.
Materials
Designers look to the three basic components: the structural system, the fabric membrane, and the perimeter tensioning system. Options for the structural system include steel and aluminum. These materials have long life, are recyclable, and can be specified to be manufactured locally to the site.
There are myriad membrane options, some with life spans of 30+ years and many fully recyclable.
Ferrari Textiles, manufacturers of PVC composites, developed the Texyloop technology specifically for recycling of composite PVC membranes and textiles. In November 2008, Fabritecture dismantled a structure in Canberra and returned it to Europe for recycling using Texyloop. Case Study
Construction
Most tensioned fabric structures are designed, engineered and fabricated by “form finding.” This means they are designed to be not only structurally efficient but manufactured and installed with little to no wasted resources and minimal energy use.
Architectural fabric is one of the lightest building materials and can create the largest building envelope. Due to the lighter weight of the membrane and the structural steel, the entire structural system can be shipped to site with fewer trucks and erected with less equipment. Properly designed fabric structures may have little impact on the ground with smaller concrete foundations for compression loads and the use of utility cable anchor technology for tension loads. These efforts can have significant saving when the site is being used for temporary structures or deployable structures where reuse is inevitable.
For further information contact Fabritecture on info@fabritecture.com