Bio-based Building Skin (Environmental Footprints and Eco-design of Products and Processes)

This book provides a compendium of material properties, demonstrates several successful examples of bio-based materials' application in building facades, and offers ideas for new designs and novel solutions. It features a state-of-the-art review, addresses the latest trends in material selection, assembling systems, and innovative functions of facades in detail. Selected case studies on buildings from diverse locations are subsequently presented to demonstrate the successful implementation of various biomaterial solutions, which defines unique architectural styles and building functions. The structures, morphologies and aesthetic impressions related to bio-based building facades are discussed from the perspective of art and innovation; essential factors influencing the performance of materials with respect to functionality and safety are also presented. Special emphasis is placed on assessing the performance of a given facade throughout the service life of a building, and after its end.

Dr Anna Sandak is a researcher at the Trees and Timber Institute of the Italian National Research Council, where she coordinates the Laboratory of Surface Characterization, a research group leader in Wood Modification at the InnoRenew CoE, and an assistant professor and research associate at the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Science and Information Technology at the University of Primorska. She is a member of several COST actions, and research organizations (IRG, ICNIRS, SISNIR, ISPC, NESSE). In 2012 she was nominated as IUFRO Officeholder, deputy of division 5.03.05 – Biological resistance of wood. Her research activities include wood modification and multi-sensor evaluation of bio-based materials performance. Her passion is to search for biomimetic solutions for the design of new materials, and to promote the knowledge-based use of bio-inspired materials in modern sustainable architecture.
 Jakub Sandak is a carpenter from the third generation working at InnoRenew CoE, Izola, Slovenia as researcher; and an assistant professor and research associate at the Andrej Marušič Institute, University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia. He obtained his Ph.D. in Agricultural Sciences from Tottori University, Japan. His research interests include the multi-sensor evaluation of wood properties, systems for wood machining process control and monitoring, organization of manufacturing processes in furniture industries, vision systems in the wood industry, the physics of wood cutting, wood mechanics and fracture, spectroscopy and chemometry, hyperspectral imaging, numerical modelling of wood at different scales, and mechatronics. Marcin Brzezicki is an architect and tutor at the Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland. After completing his doctorate in 2001 and tenure in 2015 he became an associate professor at his Alma Mater. He is a member of Managment Commeete of COST TU 1403 Adaptive Façade Network. He is a motivated and ambitious researcher with a strong interest in the optical properties of architectural envelopes. His scientific interests include issues of façade/architectural envelope morphology and aesthetics. Dr Andreja Kutnar is Associate Professor in the field “wood science” at University of Primorska, Slovenia and director of the InnoRenew CoE Renewable materials and healthy environments research and innovation centre of excellence. In 2014 she co-authored a book “Contemporary Slovenian Timber Architecture for Sustainability” published by Springer International Publishing AG in a Series Green Energy and Technology. Furthermore, in 2016 dr. Andreja Kutnar co-edited a scientific book “Environmental Impacts of Traditional and Innovative Forest-based Bioproducts” published by Springer International Publishing AG in a Series Environmental Footprints and Eco-design of Products and Processes. She is co-editor of journal Wood Material Science and Engineering.She is coordinating H2020 Teaming project: Renewable materials and healthy environments research and innovation centre of excellence (InnoRenew CoE). Furthermore, she is chair of COST Action FP1407 “Understanding wood modification through an integrated scientific and environmental impact approach.In 2016 she received recognition of "Prometheus of Science for excellence in communication" for a successful multi-level communication in wood sciences and supporting the enforcement of the sustainable