Fabric Architecture Specifier's Guide 2024 - 6

IT'S MATERIAL THAT IT MATTERS
There is embodied
carbon and then there
is operational carbon.
Fabric as a material
can work for both
areas, although in
different ways.
Nicholas Goldsmith
FTL DESIGN ENGINEERING STUDIO
has realized that it loves living outdoors,
and the restaurants and pop-up food
markets, and general gathering spaces
produced by the pandemic have kept
many of these organizations in business
by the use of fabric shelters (see case
study p. 15).
CAREFUL MATERIAL SELECTION
Material choices can have an enormous
impact on an architect's attempt to
be energy efficient and wise when
specifying products. Key to this is the
increasing use of Environmental Product
Declarations (EPD) to help verify " truth
in advertising " when buildings must
perform as efficiently as possible. The
commissioning of building systems
(such as heat pumps), the operational
performance standards and client
requirements that squeeze the most
energy out of the embodied material
carbon footprint, as well as insulation
specifications, have necessitated the
use of third-party verifications such as
EPD. Thus EPD becomes the standard
to match and has quickly become de
rigueur for carbon counting.
Moreover, architects have a
prime responsibility to reduce the
environmental impact of their buildings
and, as frequently quoted in building
energy performance reviews, 40% of
all carbon impact in the world can be
attributed to buildings, their operations,
their materials and performances, and
life-cycle energy usage.
When it comes to North American
membrane structure design and
construction, several recent changes
have occurred to the fabrics supply
chain. " Evolutions in materials abound, "
says Craig Huntington, SE, F.ASCE
of Huntington Design Associates,
Oakland, Calif., " and most prominent
among these has been the emergence of
membranes made from foil materials,
chiefly ETFE. Where conventional
fabrics have been limited to light
transmissions of 15% or so, ETFE
material provides near transparency. "
A common application of foil materials
involves wrapping existing structures
with sophisticated facade systems to
help reduce solar heat gain. " Membrane
facades are an area of market growth
and design innovation for both new
and retrofitted construction, " says
Huntington. " Typically, membrane
facades are employed as lighttransmitting
shading devices and
facade visual enhancements for office
buildings and other applications. "
One of the more handsome examples
Perkins & Will retrofitted this University of Cincinnati research center with a mesh fabric
facade. The new facade helps reduce solar heat gain and interior glare while maintaining
good daylighting. Photo: FlexFacades by Structurflex
6
FabricArchitectureMag.com
of this type of application is the
University of Cincinnati Gardner
Neuroscience Institute by Perkins &
Will, Minneapolis, Minn., with facade
designed and installed by Structurflex.
A large number of these retrofits are for
parking garages, and that makes sense
in response to city ordinances that
require screening of most garages. The

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