Architectural Facades & Products

Façades hold a central place in building design and construction research because of their key position in the building: on the one hand, they constitute the critical layer that distinguishes the interior from the exterior; on the other hand, being the face of a building, they are often charged with the task of mediating architectural ideas. Façades are, therefore, continuously scrutinised for their technical and functional characteristics, their adaptation to emergent materials and technologies, and their capacity to communicate aesthetics.

Façades hold a central place in building design and construction research because of their key position in the building: on the one hand, they constitute the critical layer that distinguishes the interior from the exterior; on the other hand, being the face of a building, they are often charged with the task of mediating architectural ideas. Façades are, therefore, continuously scrutinized for their technical and functional characteristics, their adaptation to emergent materials and technologies, and their capacity to communicate aesthetics.

Founded in 2005, the Architectural Façades & Products (AF&P) Research Group (formerly known as the Façades Research Group) focuses on a series of issues related to facades. Those issues extend - but are not limited to energy savings and climatic performance, circularity and refurbishment, novel manufacturing methods such as additive manufacturing, and user-friendly design. The research of the group is currently clustered in the following sub-themes: Multifunctional facades, Refurbishment Strategies, Circular Building Products, Integrated Design Approaches, Human-centred design.

AF&P is hosted by the chairs Design of Construction (Prof. Dr. Ulrich Knaack) and Building Product Innovation (Prof. Dr. Tillmann Klein) at Delft University of Technology. The group consists of PhD and senior researchers and it is involved in numerous national and international research projects. The AF&P Research Group is also linked to academic networks such as the European Façade Network (EFN), the Circular Built Environment Hub, the COST Action TU1403: Adaptive Façade Network and the IEA EBC Annex75, Annex79 and Annex87. Furthermore, it fosters several collaborations with individual universities and research institutes as well as numerous industry partners. 

The AF&P Research Group hosts the Future Envelope Conference series and publishes the Journal of Façade Design and Engineering (JFDE), presenting new research results and innovative proven practice in the field of façade design and engineering. The JFDE is currently ranked in the highest quartile in the sub-field of architecture in the SCOPUS Database of scientific journals.