Glazed Facades Buildings in the Different Climatic Regions in Algeria: The Architects’ Viewpoint

Abstract

During the recent few decades, fully glazed facade system has been increasingly used in Algeria. While neglecting its climatic impacts, this design trend is always tangible especially for office buildings. This article presents the main results of a survey carried out for 49 selected office buildings. These latter are located in the three different climatic zones of Algeria.The study is specially focused on these office buildings' designers. This research main objective is to inquiry about the glazed facade architecture in Algeria and to expose architects' points of view about the building glazed envelop in relation to climate factors. A face-to-face administered questionnaire survey has been used for this field study. The investigation results highlight Algerian architects' desire for office buildings with large glass facades even if most of them (90%) agreed that this kind of facades causes overheating and discomfort glare problems. Besides, the architects' preference for a glazed façade is revealed as being more associated to psychological and physiological aspects than to the consequent environmental impact. In addition to the positive features that the glazed facades can provide for a building, in Algeria, some constraints and problems remain for its on-site use. Finally, and from design' practice point of view, the investigation outcomes point out that the 30%-40% window-to-wall ratio is judged as the lowest for the hot and dry climate regions characterized by a clear sunny sky.