Resilience-based Facade Design Framework

Abstract

With the increasing number and diversity of disruptive events imposed on the built environment, it is becoming more important to identify a system's resilience. Quantifying resilience is crucial because it enables effective preparation, recovery, and adaptation to the uncertainties that lie ahead. This study focuses on the resilience of building facades, which play an integral role in a building's various functions, including environmental, structural, and operational performance. Facades contribute significantly to the total building damage, yet their resilience is not sufficiently addressed in current discourse. This research aims to bridge this research gap by addressing the question: How can the integrated resilience of a facade system to multiple hazards be identified? A methodology was developed with two objectives: 1) evaluating facade resilience, and 2) integrating this methodology into the facade design process.

The Resilience-based Facade Design Framework assesses the impact of multiple hazards on a building facade, taking into account its fragility. The framework provides a quantitative approach to decision-making regarding facades, both in the early design stage and in retrofitting. Users can input project location, building geometry, and existing facade specifications to create a facade package. This package is then assessed for resilience under different hazards, including seismic and heat hazards. The resilience performance, defined in terms of resilience loss and economic loss, is integrated into a multi-attribute decision-making tool. This tool allows users to select a facade package based on its integrated resilience performance value, or to configure a facade package based on individual enhancements to resilience attributes.