Facades-as-a-Service

The clean energy and Circular Economy transitions in the Built Environment have respectively dominated the academic dialogue in architecture, engineering, and real estate for the last 20+ years. While significant progress has been done, and many fine examples of more sustainable architecture exist, the process has been hindered by traditional systemic models for the planning, contracting, financing, construction, and management of building projects.

If we are to meet the ambitious climate-change mitigation goals and material resource preservation challenges of our generation, it is crucial to re-think the way in which we build, operate, and decommission the Built Environment. Product-Service Systems are a promising model for realigning environmental incentives and responsibilities with financial and business objectives, while promoting much deeper and long-lasting collaboration between all parties involved in a building’s life-cycle.

This thesis focuses on the building envelop, as one of the most performance-determining systems in our buildings. It then questions the technological, managerial, financial, and legal contexts which often perpetuate unsustainable linear practices despite the urgency for and feasibility of more energy- and resource-efficient alternatives. Facades-as-a-Service is only to a minor extent a technological topic. It is rather a thesis about how we make façade construction and retrofitting decision, which systemic parameters determine and constraint these decisions, and whether – in the search for a more sustainable Built Environment – we could question these decisions.