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Alain MAUGARD, Président du CSTB Ancien élève de l'Ecole Polytechnique et Ingénieur général des Ponts et Chaussées, Alain MAUGARD est né le 23 avril 1943 à Nérac (Lot et Garonne). Il est également Président de l'Association Française de l'Eclairage depuis 1997. |
Paris, december 9 1998
Alain Maugard, CSTB President
Building has a future. To understand its evolution and the implied profound changes, it isn't enough just to look at tomorrow, as we already understand what tomorrow will hold. At CSTB, the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment, we have chosen to look beyond tomorrow in an effort to pinpoint the origins of these major changes, and accept the fragrance of the future.
Our "future studies" research is original. Not only does it target, like many studies, cities and dwellings, it also focuses on how buildings function in an increasingly urban environment, including the notion of "life space," meaning places where man has modified the climatic conditions. As far as we know, this is the first time such a study has been undertaken.
Increasingly strict requirements in health, the environment, risks and comfort appear as the principal short- and medium-term evolutionary factors for building. As techniques progress, we can modulate noise in apartments, or create a sphere of silence. Sensors measure air quality, control lighting, regulate heating and air conditioning room-by-room, and signal break-ins…..
But the technological progress heralded by research is, for some, merely make-believe. Their development depends clearly on society's choice, economic factors, and, above all, occupant expectations.
The building envelope : flexibility, mobility and reactivity
From static to dynamic facades
Contemporary architecture is the heir to the modern era's rationalised shapes, with large-scale facades and simply used material. Today, buildings must fulfil design, economic and durability needs.
This apparent simplicity gives rise to numerous innovations including the most important, disassociating the bearing function from the envelope function. This evolution has brought about the optimisation of structures, especially with support beams and columns, contributing to the development of light-weight facades. This disassociation of functions has allowed a greater modulability. It generates savings in material, allows for a greater sizing precision of shell construction, and means improved productivity through a better organised work site.
Freed from the structure, the envelope plays the role of a lining and is integral to lighting, thermics, acoustics and ventilation. Research in improved transparency has meant new uses of glass (glass beams, structural glazing, point-fixed structural glazing, screen-printed glass), but also new material like silica aerogel, with a view to creating transparent insulation or even electrochrome glass.
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Thinner facades
Tomorrow's facades will be created in smooth, dirt-resistant materials with variable reflectivity. The self-cleaning glazing, currently under development, could well be used on tertiary buildings when it becomes economically viable for extensive surfaces.
With a manufacturer who transforms glass products, CSTB has contributed to perfecting the VEA (point-fixed structural glass) system. The particularity of this system is that it is equipped with a respiratory system within the cross-glass fixation points. This practically invisible system allows facades to be perfectly smooth. It was used in the facades of the George Pompdiou Hospital in Paris.
These new assembly methods make facades totally dismountable, re-usable and recyclable, meeting environmental requirements. We can image beams in glued-laminated-wood-like glass. Walls and ceilings, combining mechanical and thermal performance levels, can be assembled in a vacuum
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Facades -- more equipped and active.
Automation, remote-control glazings, the organisation and modulation of space: so many requirements which add to the control of air quality, temperature and noise. Tomorrow, the performance levels of walls will vary automatically or by remote control in terms of transparency, air- and water-tightness, and thermal insulation. Facades will use material which works only when necessary (anti-fire barrier which functions at the start of a fire, glazing that shatters in case the attachment breaks...)
In the area of insulating glazings, where much progress has already been made (thermic transmission in glazings, acoustic insulation), current research on the neutralisation of undesirable noise by counter-noise and the reduction of pane thickness without compromising acoustic insulation could provide new answers.
The window is easily "plugged in," making it part of mobile household equipment, like electric appliances, while solutions mixing passive and active acoustics will enable windows to open and let in air but not noise. Blinds linked to active systems, doubling the facade, can provide both acoustic insulation and solar protection.
Closures and solar protection become multi-functional: energy is collected by receptors in open position due to photovoltaics or to material which changes phases. The energy is reconstituted in the closed position at night, in the form of light or heat. Closures with overlapping flaps, one of which is transparent, enable a total opening, a single window, a double window, or total closure.
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Roofing: the fifth facade
Metal has reclaimed an important place in the building envelope, especially in roofs. For example, in sandwich panels whose metal lining of several microns thick encloses a core of recycled synthetic material. The roof and the facade are continuous and can incorporate curves. The exterior layer of the roof no longer provides insulation and waterproofing functions. These are performed by multi-functional complexes of ceiling-insulation-waterproofing.
To shelter commercial or sports centres from foul-weather conditions, large transparent roofs can be used, made from transparent polymer material, glass or textiles stretched over metal structures.
Installations and services: comfort for everybody
In the area of building installations, after a long period of standardised design of products for average users, we are witnessing a market segmentation and personalised answers to users' requests. For both new and restored buildings, construction should evolve in relation to increasing demand. A growing number of installations, formerly integrated into the built environment, will now become mobile.
Reduced to a minimal envelope, a building will be provided with all the pre-cabling necessary for future installations. Electrical fixtures will be planned to provide future household computerisation without changing the existing wall configuration. Remote-control means even cables can be eliminated in walls, which become mobile, according to occupant needs. Delivered ready to set up, apartments can be rearranged by the occupant thanks to kits constructed and adjusted in the factory. All that is needed is to plug it into the electrical network or hydrocable.
Each appliance is self-automated. Set up in a network, the different sensors provide personalised lighting, turning all the lights in the house off simultaneously, regulating the heating and air conditioning, room by room, and providing surveillance to protect against break-ins when no one is home....
While taking an increasingly important role in the home, the sensors are there to facilitate the movement of the occupant who will want to stay independent from or even master the technology. Thus, easy-to-run, low technology "rustic" equipment will be developed in parallel with hyper-technological remote controlled building management systems which seldom break down, but can only be serviced by specialised technicians. These two options can nevertheless be combined. Moreso, the building becomes totally autonomous and produces everything itself: energy, water treatment…The miniaturisation of fuel cells, already used by the military, allows each appliance to have its own power supply, without pollution and without noise.
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Producing air "à la carte"
More than ever considered as a refuge, a shelter against harsh exterior conditions, the house has to guarantee a healthy environment for its occupants. Tomorrow, city dwellers will want to know about their apartments' air quality (this will be possible through the use of bio-sensors), and will be very demanding in their choice of the floor and wall coverings, of their vacuum cleaner…
Equipped with a central control unit, the house will be linked to an exterior polluted-air filtration system, including various devices to measure the presence of polluting agents, and to eliminate such agents or odours.
Ventilation systems will thus have to preserve occupant health, faced with internal discharges (bacteria, materials and installations) as well as external pollution. They will also have to fulfil two more functions: comfort (hygro-thermic, acoustic and olfactory) and the preservation of the built environment. Other functions will also be expected from them, such as cooling or containment, in the case of accidental industrial pollution.
Systems currently available on the market only partially meet these requirements. Thus, there is a lot of room for innovation, and a need to change existing legislation. Two types of systems should be developed and must work in parallel:
-centralised systems guaranteeing a minimum ventilation level;
-individual systems, adapted to specific needs.
Energy-efficient air conditioning
The development of air conditioning in the non-residential sector should continue and enter the housing sector in the coming decades, helped by the development of air conditioning in motor vehicles.
Systems will have to meet needs for reversibility (hot/cold), noise reduction, autonomy (local management), improved design and sizing, new technologies (solar energy, …). Because of foreseeable strict regulations to reduce CO2 discharge, and the resulting reinforced energy control requirements, these systems will only be developed in the perspective of reduced energy use, necessitating an adapted building envelope treatment and highly efficient systems.
Hot water and heating: centralisation or autonomy ?
In the heating equipment sector, hot water heaters will reduce their pollution and size. Reversible hot/cold systems should become common due to air conditioning needs.
Micro-networks around heat-producing industrial activities (rubbish incineration, for example) and new heat-storing methods will be added to co-generation and multi-energy system use.
Control/command systems will be set up to optimise management and to detect functional defects. Periodic checks for efficiency, tuning and discharges from heating devices could also be established, in the same way motor vehicles have to undergo a technical test.
Two parallel trends are emerging: centralisation or autonomy. If an endless supply of energy is available, hot water-based heating systems could lose ground to the all-electric systems, much easier to install.
The ideal goal to reach: all surfaces should have the same temperature. Heating wall surfaces without visible transmitters will complement heating floors and ceilings. Munich airport is already fitted with facades whose hollow steal sections convey hot water for heating. Heating through micro-waves in wall surfaces can also be envisaged.
Moreover, the thermic characteristics of construction materials will make energy loss almost negligible.
Heating and household hot water production functions will be separate. Centralised production of hot water will give way to instant water heating at the pumping point through a micro-wave system, for example, or an electric element coiled around the supply pipe, or a uranium battery installed to each tap. The mixer tap will be replaced with a simple thermostatic cursor which will set the temperature of the water coming from a single pipe. Sinks themselves, made of conducting polymers, could heat the water they contain.
Autonomous housing
Thanks to the miniaturisation of materials, housing will gain more and more autonomy. Thus, the centralised supply and water treatment systems will give way to individual membrane systems which will allow everyone to treat their own water before use.
Treatment of outgoing effluents corresponds to individual treatment of air and water at their intake point: used water will be cleaned through a membrane and smoke (if we still use combustion) will be cleaned thanks to a similar system to the one which is today imposed on polluting industries.
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Other building effluents: domestic waste, whose production is rising, is destroyed on the spot through pyrolysis, or is sorted in order to be recycled. The garbage chute will reappear after an absence of several decades and will finally bring the comfort its predecessors had not offered. Waste-disposal sinks, very common in North America, can become more popular provided that purification stations are ready, which is not currently the case.
Environmental protection is an important element. We still have to know how much city dwellers are willing to pay to increase the quality of their lives, and what type of responsibility we can expect from them.
Producing your own water in accordance with your planned use
Water, now rare, will have to be saved. Many water resources can be used, such as rain water, allowing the house to become totally autonomous. A back-up supply network can provide untreated water from which the user produces his/her own water according to planned usage, by adding some tablets which will give the water the sought-after characteristics: hardness, taste, level of potability, etc. Toilets will also be equipped with electric elements or lasers to burn matter. This solution has already been adopted for mountain refuges.
The evolution of eating habits implies a reduction of water use. For example: eliminating cooking water through the use of micro-wave ovens or other techniques, washing food or dishes with ultrasounds, etc.
Tailor-made sanitary equipment thanks to connections and flexible joints
Electricity and electronics are increasingly associated with sanitary equipment, especially since the development of automation: presence detectors, setting of water temperature, … Why not, in that case, associate them in a common fluid network? Each room of a building could be equipped with hydraulic plugs, in the same way we have electrical and TV plugs, and more and more vacuum cleaner plug and communication networks, etc. Suspended ceilings and raised floors make their development easier.
Simplified connection allows the sanitary equipment to be interchangeable. If, on the top of that, walls can be easily moved, the notion of dry and humid rooms disappears since every one can choose the arrangement of their sanitary equipment which thus becomes furniture.
Home health care has accelerated how design and ergonomy of equipment are adapted to ageing and an individual's physical handicap. Moreover, crossovers are to be expected between transport and building sectors. The High Speed Train toilettes have already inspired three-dimensional bath cubicles. Even in public spaces, everyone wants to recreate their own comfort sphere. Automatically-serviced public toilettes continue to be developed.
Protection against electro-magnetic waves
If no special precautions are taken, electro-magnetic waves will infiltrate everywhere and circulate in all networks: air conditioning, heating,… Building products will have to protect premises against parasite waves, while letting through necessary waves and guaranteeing the confidentiality of certain networks. Woven products can only let through some wavelengths according to the size of their mesh. Floors, walls and ceilings could be coated with integrated Faraday shield coverings.
Biotechnology at your fingertips
Domestic metrology will widely rely on biotechnology with bio-sensible sensors which will assess air quality, for example. Already used in the centralised purification of used water, biotechnologies will be able to develop in carpets which will digest the acarians. The bio material will be used for auto-repair of buildings. Material with shape memory, that is which returns to its initial form after having been stressed, will also find an application in the auto-repair of cracked walls, or the design of locks without keys, activated by a simple electrical impulse…The new technical solutions are sensitive and auto-adaptive.
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Ise-Annhasz |
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We can nowadays extract biological molecules from vegetable and animal cells. These molecules allow the development of new pharmaceutical or farm and food products, which can treat pollution,…Why not then, use their properties to develop self-cleaning surfaces which would not need any servicing or systems to regulate the hygrometry of the premises.
Making noise pleasant
Active acoustics is nowadays developed in order to correct concert halls which present acoustical defects, or to simulate the volume of a hall for an outdoor concert. Tomorrow, individual housing will benefit from these techniques to modulate its sound environment. After the quantitative acoustics of the 90s which aimed to reduce noise, qualitative acoustics tends to make noises more pleasant. A true stimulator of the premises' architecture, an electronic tool, hooked up to the family computer, regulates the atmosphere room-by-room: muffled or variable resonance, according to the mood or the use of space. Like the light dimmer which allows us to change a room's lighting, the acoustic dimmer modulates sound.
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A silent sphere for all
Inheriting techniques already developed by the aeronautical and automobile industries, individual housing will also benefit from "silence spheres." Everyone can sleep with an open window, even in a noisy environment, if their beds are equipped with small integrated speakers which broadcast a counter noise neutralising the undesired noises. Some aeroplane seats are already equipped with these.
All noises produced by home installations will also be perfected, not to erase them, but to make them pleasant. Thus, the humming of a boiler is reassuring, but the noise it makes each time it starts up is annoying: this sound will be "sculpted" to become more harmonious. Similarly, the sound of the rolling blind's motor or the click of a switch will be counteracted. The technical-equipment-for-building industry is already working on the sound of its products.