Bespoke metal cladding. Rethinking the design of the building envelope to ensure sustainability principles

Abstract

Nowadays policies are increasingly oriented towards the use of renewable and bio-based materials to reduce the environmental impact of the building sector. Furthermore, the increasing use of dry construction techniques allows to combine a more sustainable use of resources with an attentive management of the end-of-life stage. Considering the need to shift the demand for material sourcing towards solutions that do not permanently affect the environment, the use of metals is not the first solution that comes to mind, but it offers many possibilities both in terms of sustainability and formal rendering. Metals can have great potential for use but, although the benefits of recyclability and disassembly of this material are well known, the metal cladding sector still finds little room for development. Bearing this in mind, this contribution presents a research work which analysed the possibilities and opportunities deriving from the use of metal cladding for sustainability.