The PowerSkin conference series is a biennial event organised cooperatively between TU München, TU Darmstadt, and TU Delft, which is already in its fourth edition, having started in 2017. This coming edition of PowerSkin has also been supported and organised with the support of RWTH Aachen. ISBN 978-90-832713-2-3

The building skin has evolved enormously over the past decades. The energy performance and environmental quality of both the interior and exterior of buildings are primarily determined by the building envelope. The façade has experienced a change in its role as an adaptive climate control system that leverages the synergies between form, material, mechanical and energy systems towards an architectural integration of energy generation. The PowerSKIN Conference aims to address the role of building skins to accomplish a carbonneutral building stock. The focus of the PowerSKIN issue 2021 deals with the question of whether simplicity and robustness stay in contradiction to good performance of buildings skins or whether they even complement each other: simplicity vs performance?

As an international scientific event - usually held at the BAU trade fair in Munich - the PowerSKIN Conference builds a bridge between science and practice, between research and construction, and between the latest developments and innovations for the façade of the future. Topics such as building operation, embodied energy, energy generation and storage in the context of the three conference sessions envelope, energy and environment are considered:

– Envelope: The building envelope as an interface for the interaction between indoor and outdoor environment. This topic is focused on function, technical development and material properties.

– Energy: New concepts, accomplished projects, and visions for the interaction between building structure, envelope and energy technologies.

– Environment: Façades or elements of façades, which aim to provide highly comfortable surroundings where environmental control strategies as well as energy generation and/or storage are an integrated part of an active skin.

The Technical University of Munich, TU Darmstadt, and TU Delft are signing responsible for the organisation of the conference. It is the third event of a biennial series: April 9th 2021, architects, engineers, and scientists present their latest developments and research projects for public discussion and reflection. For the first time, the conference will be a virtual event. On the one hand, this is a pity, as conferences are also about meeting people and social interaction; on the other hand, it offers the possibility that we can reach more people who connect from all over the world.

The PowerSkin conference series is a biennial event organised cooperatively between TU München, TU Darmstadt, and TU Delft, which is already in its third edition, having started in 2017. ISBN 978-94-6366-405-9

The building skin has evolved enormously over the past decades. Energy performance and the environmental quality of buildings are significantly determined by the building envelope. The façade has experienced a change in its role as an adaptive climate control system that leverages the synergies between form, material, mechanical and energy systems in an integrated design.

The Building Skin has evolved enormously over the past decades. Energy performance and environmental quality of buildings are significantly determined by the building envelope. The façade has experienced a change in its role as an adaptive climate control system that leverages the synergies between form, material, mechanical and energy systems in an integrated design. The PowerSkin Conference aims to address the role of building skins to accomplish a carbon neutral building stock. Topics such as building operation, embodied energy, energy generation and storage in context of façades, structure and environment are considered. Three main themes will be showcased in presentations of recent scientific research and developments as well as projects related to building skins from the perspectives of material, technology and design: Environment – Façades or elements of façades which aim for the provision of highly comfortable surroundings where environmental control strategies as well as energy generation and/or storage are integral part of an active skin. Façade Design – The building envelope as an interface for the interaction between indoor and outdoor environment. This topic is focused on function and energy performance, technical development and material properties. Façade Engineering – New concepts, accomplished projects, and visions for the interaction between building structure, envelope and energy technologies.

This publication was made on the occasion of The Future Envelope, a symposium held on 22 June 2017 in Delft. This symposium is organized by the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology (Chair Design of Construction) in cooperation with Journal of Facade Design & Engineering, european facade network, VMRG, MHZ, kloeckner metals, and Solarlux GmbH.

Imagine is a series of publications that investigates technology and material development to provide architects and designers with ideas for their design.