What is your take on modern fenestration materials?
Fenestrations hold profound significance as they form the initial interface between a structure and its surroundings. Rather than serving a singular intent, such as aesthetics, a well-designed façade optimises multiple functions, such as inviting daylight and facilitating ventilation, controlling heat gain, and modulating levels of privacy.
In any project, fenestration materials should be selected considering climatic compatibility, cultural relevance, local availability, and maintenance requirements. Glass can offer transparency and visual connection with the outdoors, wood infuses warmth and colour into the façade, Copper can allow a building to age gracefully as its patina develops—each material has its own characteristics, and should be selected to suit the design requirements and the context in the best possible way.
For instance, in Boat Club Apartments in Chennai, the balcony windows are designed as a combination of openable teakwood shutters and fixed glazing to allow the entry of light and wind while preventing dust. Recessed casement windows in rooms and double-height stairwells within each duplex unit ensure cross-ventilation, thus offering respite from humidity.
The doors and windows are also installed with pleated, side-slide mosquito meshes and mesh shutters to keep insects out. The façade is covered in a dry stone cladding of local Sadarhalli Grey Granite, which insulates the building thermally by creating a 40 mm wide air gap, leading to a temperature drop of at least 4 degree Celsius between the outside and the inside.
Brief on innovative fenestration designs with a combination of materials in your projects.
As architects, designers and consultants, our mantra when designing fenestrations should be ‘form follows climate’. This environmentally conscious selection of materials can promote innovative and contextually relevant designs.
In our project, the Nirvana Films Studio in Bengaluru, we reversed the idea of walls and windows to facilitate connections to the outside — the façade is a series of transparent, fixed glass and opaque, operable louvres. The operable louvres were custom-designed and engineered in white solid acrylic surfaces and a hollow aluminium framework to achieve lightness, a pre-requisite for their prefabrication. These louvred shutters are interconnected and can be opened at varied angles with a customised hardware system, allowing one to modulate the amount of light and wind per their comfort. This was the first time solid acrylic surfaces were used as an exterior design element in India.
With its efficient and climate-responsive planning and fenestration design, the building uses almost no electricity for ventilation and lighting. No HVAC system is installed in the building except for the post-production space, where machinery and computers heat the space and need an extra cooling system. The design is a testament to the power of innovative design in creating sustainable architecture.
What are the key points to consider while choosing glass as a façade material for energy-efficient and cost-effective façades, windows and doors?
Selecting the right materials for the façade can significantly impact the energy- and cost-efficiency of a project.
Materials such as Low-E glass or double- or triple-pane glass, for instance, can significantly reduce heat gain, hence reducing a structure’s energy usage; prefabricated fenestrations can speed up the construction process and save costs. Materials with auditory considerations, such as acoustic insulating glass, are designed to reduce noise transmission by incorporating special interlayers that dampen sound waves, ensuring quieter indoor environments. As such, one should understand the design goals and select the material accordingly.
Please brief on the Latest window & door system installation technologies.
While implementing current technologies, we must aim to balance context and quality-oriented design factors such as sustainability, air permeability, noise cancellation, water tightness, safety, etc. Certified systems, supported by thorough market research and feasibility studies, can assist in selecting appropriate installation technologies for façades and fenestrations.
How do you calculate the energy efficiency of a building while designing? What are tools and methods?
The energy efficiency of a building is influenced by various factors, including heat regulation, airflow, and the insulation provided by its envelope. While there are standardised methods to calculate energy efficiency quantitatively, qualitative assessments are also possible.
Passive design strategies play a crucial role in enhancing energy efficiency. Orienting the building to minimise heat gain and maximise mutual shading, positioning windows and openings to facilitate cross ventilation, balancing hardscaped and landscaped areas, incorporating water elements to enable evaporative cooling, and using thermally insulating building materials are a few such strategies that can significantly reduce the heating and cooling loads of a building.
At SJK Architects, we integrate passive climate-mitigation strategies into every project, drawing inspiration from vernacular architecture. This approach allows us to create environments that are thermally comfortable, culturally relevant, and energy-efficient.
At the Nirvana Films Studio, we have significantly reduced operational energy consumption and costs through climate-responsive planning and fenestration design. This approach has garnered numerous national and international accolades for sustainability. Remarkably, these achievements have been attained without LEED or GRIHA certifications, underscoring that energy efficiency can be realised through qualitative measures too.
What is your take on the future of automation technologies in installing and operating energy-efficient façade and fenestration systems?
By leveraging local data and materials, automated systems can tailor façade and fenestration solutions to specific regional needs, enhancing buildings’ sustainability and contextual relevance.
The future of fenestration design lies at the intersection of tradition, innovation, technological advancement and sustainability. Embracing cultural wisdom while harnessing technological progress can help us create a built environment that resonates with its context, fosters well-being, and safeguards the planet for our future generations.
