“How Facades Influence Energy Performance”: Expertise from KPMB LAB featured in Construction Canada

March 22, 2023

Whether you’re designing a cultural hub, repurposing under-utilized properties into residential complexes, or building mixed-use projects, understanding how your façade design decisions will affect the energy performance of your building is crucial. 

However, there are currently few modelling tools that can isolate the impact of facades with the limited amount of information available during the early stages of design. 

For the March issue of Construction Canada, Jonathan Graham, sustainability analyst with KPMB LAB, shares a tool developed by the LAB that will allow designers to evaluate the relationship between façade design options and energy use early in the design phase without requiring the numerous inputs of a whole-building energy model. 

The tool is a simplified energy model written in the programming language, Python, and is designed to quantify thermal energy demand intensity (TEDI) and heating load as functions of façade performance. Because of its narrow scope, it is able to provide detailed insights with information obtainable during the concept and schematic design phases. 

Read the full article here.