Door and window curtain wall design should follow the principle of practicality

China's curtain wall design industry can be traced back to the 1980s. From the beginning of the construction of the first modern curtain wall building in the history of Chinese architecture in 1982, the Great Wall Hotel Beijing has become the world’s largest curtain wall production and use country. We only used 20 Years of time. Perhaps it is going too far and going so fast that many facade designers often forget about the most basic principles that curtain wall design should follow.

Curtain wall architecture is one of the many branches of architecture, and its design principles are interlinked with architectural design. From the design genre, the curtain wall design is undoubtedly a typical exquisite design. With the history of the Second World War, the architectural design experienced three stages of development. The destructive and cruel nature of the war determined the style of design at that time to use pragmatism as the mainstream.

With the end of the war, more important than rebuilding the home is the appeasement of the souls of those who were injured in the war, like the revival of arts such as music and art. At this time, the style of architectural design favored the beauty. The tendency to focus on exquisite technology at this stage is the world's dominant design thinking. The tendency to emphasize the exquisite technique characterized by the "pure form" of metal and glass began to cool down in the late 1960s. Since the economic crisis and energy crisis in the capitalist world in the 1970s, architectural design has shifted from decency to rough design. The most typical form of rough style is the use of the most common concrete and naked steel performance, design methods applied to simple processing such as pulling hair, and layering. When the aesthetic challenge to humanity reached its limit, the design style of a hundred schools eventually applied to today.

The present situation of curtain wall design in our country is very similar to the situation after World War II. At the scheme design stage, everyone is pursuing "strange, new, extraordinary and special". The practicality and economy of design must give way to visual impact, and this kind of thinking is flooding in major and medium cities. The inevitable is the waste that cannot be avoided and the energy saving problem. China's "Environmental Energy Efficiency Design Standards for Public Buildings" (GB50189 2005) stipulates that the area of ​​the windows to be encouraged within the scope of ensuring the natural lighting of the outer windows is as small as possible, that is, the smaller the window-to-wall ratio, the better.

Some time ago, some media even reported that “the state has restricted the glass curtain wall,” “stopped the glass curtain wall,” and “the new public building standards ruled the death of the glass curtain wall” and so on. A provincial capital city in China has also issued a policy prohibiting the construction of entire glass facades in public buildings such as new hotels, shopping malls, office buildings, office buildings, and the use of vacuum glass for exterior windows. Although these actions unilaterally negate the function of architectural diversity and self-complementarity, they still serve as a warning to the curtain wall industry. If we cannot improve the energy saving from ourselves, we will usher in the 1970s again. The winter brought by the crisis to the curtain wall design is not a distant issue for our designers.

The creator of the curtain wall design, Mies van der Rohe's representative work, Krone House, is a building that has a transcendental significance. The Krone House is located on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology in the United States. The roof of the building is suspended from the underside of four steel girders. The steel girders are sequentially supported by eight external steel columns and are covered with glass. This is also Mies van der. For the first time, Luo used full glass instead of the wall. The idea of ​​the building was very bold and was included in the history of the development of the curtain wall. However, the historical significance of the building is actually more practical. At that time, the use of the building was extremely low. Students were very reluctant to study in places full of hot sunlight, cold winters and hot summers. why? It is because the practical design of the building has been misplaced. If the building materials do not meet the requirements of the usability index, such a design has been used rashly, which violates the basic practical principle of architectural design.

After the founding of New China, the positioning of China's architectural design was: "economical, practical, and aesthetic." With the continuous development of the economy and the people’s higher pursuit of spiritual life, the concept of architectural design in China has been adjusted to become “practical, economic, and aesthetic”. Now, the concept of the popular curtain wall design in China is in direct contradiction with this. The first is aesthetics, and it is a peculiar appearance. The most peculiar of their own plans has become the goal of the industry. This is actually a misunderstanding and it is a deviation from the design concept of the building curtain wall. In fact, the principle of practicality should always be the first. Otherwise, it will be like Kroon House. Although it can be recorded in history, it is not practical, it is not energy-saving, and the end-use rate is not high.

The primary manifestation of the principle of practicality is undoubtedly security. In order for our curtain wall design to be fully reflected in the actual project, the safety and durability of the project quality bear the brunt of it. With the strengthening of energy conservation policies and the development of the curtain wall and door industry at all levels of the country, the curtain wall and door industry has evolved from simple conventional buildings to new curtain wall structures with energy-saving features.

Energy-saving curtain wall doors and windows as a new thing, the quality of its project needs a new review and understanding in order to correctly grasp. The most important factor in quality and safety is the internal cause. The selection of suitable heat-insulating profiles, glass, and hermetically sealed hardware are all prerequisites for the formation of an energy-efficient exterior facade product, which is in compliance with energy efficiency standards. The design and rigorous construction management will naturally satisfy the energy-saving requirements of the entire industry's system products. The selection of raw materials for doors, windows, and curtain walls is also a top priority. The use of materials that do not meet the requirements of energy-saving standards for energy-saving curtain wall design will only be counterproductive. As far as the profiles are concerned, the use of heat-insulating profiles that meet the requirements of national standards can provide a strong quality and safety backing for energy-saving curtain wall design concepts.