The examination of approaches to energy-efficient building envelope systems

Building envelope systems have an important part about both the building and the city scale as they provide the transition between the interior and the exterior. First of all they provide protection, separate the person/people contained in themselves and differ them. Furthermore, the aesthetical and cultural functions of the envelopes are also important. The building envelope acts as the identity card of the building and the designer(s) of it. The focus element of the building among the others is the building envelope.On the contrary, designing of the building envelopes by the awareness of responsibility for the current problem of the diminishing stores makes envelopes one of the components of the concept of ``sustainable low energy?? and reveals the ``energy-efficient envelope?? concept. The envelope systems act efficiently about both producing and conserving energy as the usual result of contacting the surface and the external environment (Schittich, 2001).This study examines designing the building envelopes by the energy-efficient approaches in response to the exhaustion risk of the energy sources and the dangerous results of the global warming occurring by the increase of the greenhouse gasses emissions.The first chapter describes the aim and the goals, the scope and the methods of this study.The second chapter gives definitions of the terms about the subject of the study, deals with the literature researches and the historical development process of the materials used on the building envelopes.The third chapter informs about the approaches intended energy-efficiency about the envelopes and states the criterias intended energy-efficiency.Some of the examples of the energy-efficient building envelopes built both in Turkey and in the other countries in recent years are examined within some stated criterias in the fourth chapter. Furthermore the examined energy-efficient building envelope examples are shown comparatively on one table and the energy efficiency of the building envelope systems of the examples are estimated by some criterias intended energy efficiency.The performances intended energy efficiency of the examined building envelopes are commented in the final chapter.Keywords: Energy efficiency, building facade systems, architecture, technology, approaches to energy-efficient building envelope systems.