Textile Structures for Climate Control

Climate control and energy saving are the key words for the latest design and enhancements on textile structures.In the past, the improvements on energy savings in textile structures had already been taken into consideration. The first important examples can be found at the private clinic of Masserberg and at the swimming pool of Torres Novas. In those cases, traditional isolating materials and textile fabrics were utilised in combination, but total opacity to light was the resulting effect.Today the same issues were studied in order to ensure that the natural light could pass through, by combining multilayer fabrics meant to obtain the best energy savings for heating and cooling.The swimming pools and wellness centre of Splash & SPA in Switzerland and the walkway roof of the Centre Commercial Perpignan in France, were constructed by utilising the said materials.The combination of fabric and structural design is the latest example of the Miami Brickell Centre covering: fitted with massive fabric-covered louvers, Swire's “Climate Ribbon TM”- thus named because it resembles a crumpled strip of ribbon - is designed to allow natural light while shading shoppers and channelling prevailing breezes from Biscayne Bay to cool them. The highly engineered canopy is the product of a collaboration between a Paris design firm Hugh Dutton & Associates and the universities of Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh and Cardiff in the U.K.. It is believed to be the first of its kind in the country and possibly the biggest passive shading and ventilation device - i.e., not dependent on air conditioning.The primary objective is to provide optimization of environmental quality for the shopping centre.The structure is designed to obtain three key benefits:-ventilation (avoid the use of air conditioning)-shelter from inclement weather-shading from the sun