New paper is out! Facades-as-a-Service: The Role of Technology in the Circular Servitisation of the Building Envelope

A new paper is out in MDPI Applied Science journal in the Special Issue “Novel Concept and Technologies of Sustainable Building Design”.

Title: Facades-as-a-Service: The Role of Technology in the Circular Servitisation of the Building Envelope

Authors: Juan F. Azcarate-Aguerre, Tillmann Klein, Thaleia Konstantinou, Martijn Veerman

Abstract: The servitisation of the built environment, through the implementation of product–service systems, is considered a promising business strategy to achieve a circular economy transition. This servitisation faces a number of practical challenges, among them the technological readiness and effective integration and application of existing and emerging products, manufacturing processes, and digital monitoring and management tools. The research builds on targeted literature review, and on a research-through-design approach based on full-scale pilot projects developed in an ongoing feedback loop between researchers, planners, and industry partners representing both the demand and supply sides of the façade industry in the Netherlands. The paper analyses the technical implementation challenges currently preventing the façade industry from adopting performance-based contracts. It then proposes the roles that existing and emerging digital design and engineering technologies, manufacturing processes, and asset management systems can play in the development, implementation, and fulfilment of such contracts. The paper proposes a multi-stakeholder, systemic model for the development and application of façade technologies capable of overcoming many of the technical implementation barriers to the delivery of performance-based contracts for integrated facades.

Read the full abstract and article here.